Escamplero

El Escamplero is a small village in the Asturian council of Las Regueras, perched on a ridge just over nine kilometres from Oviedo, which has made it the first natural halt on the Camino Primitivo. Part of the parish of Valsera, this rural settlement keeps the calm of the Asturian countryside: farmhouses, hórreos and meadows looking out over the valley of the Nora. Its name is tied to pilgrimage thanks to the hostel set up in 1996 in the village's old schoolhouse, one of the best-loved refuges of this first day. Nearby survives the chapel of Santa Ana, and not far off the chapel of Nuestra Señora de Fátima, in Valsera, both witnesses to the popular devotion of the district. For the walker who has just left behind the Cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo, El Escamplero is the first taste of the inland, rural Asturias that defines the Primitivo, with its constant ups and downs between woods and hamlets. It is a modest but endearing stop, a breather before tackling the descent towards Grado.