On Sunday, 8 September, I rented a car and drove out to the village of San Adriano, for the feast day of San Adriano, who is the patron saint of Castrillón, the district in which Mercedes' farm is located. It was a grand, traditional countryside celebration, and Mercedes and her family - who lived only about a 10-minute walk away - would have attended every year. A very special event to see.
In la Iglesia de San Adriano, at the start of the mass.
Gaitas! Local Asturian bagpipers led the procession of the saints after the mass.
The statue of San Adriano, during the procession.
8 September also is the feast day of la Virgen de Covadonga, the patron saint of Asturias. So, she processed as well.
La Iglesia de San Adriano, which is a 12th-century pilgrim church on the Camino de Santiago. It was much larger in the middle ages, when it also served as a pilgrim hospital.
Las Cepas. Where Mercedes was born and lived with her brother's family from 1900 until 1914, when she left for the US.
Back to the procession at San Adriano. La Virgen de Covadonga.
And the drummers in the bagpipe band (with Covadonga and Adriano in the upper right corner.
Worshippers at the statue of San Adriano in the church. There is a basket of chains in front of him - he was martyred by the Romans by being chained to horses by the arms and legs and pulled apart - and people rub them on the statue of the saint and then on their arms and legs. It is supposed to help heal ailments of the joints (such as being pulled apart by horses).
The view of the Cantabrian Sea from Naveces.
Bread delivery to the door. Nice.
I went for the first time to the 19th-century market square for the Monday market (built in 1873), where Mercedes and her family came to sell their milk, butter and sausages from the farm. On 15 September 1497, Queen Isabella I of Aragon and King Ferdinand II of Castille granted the city the right to hold a market on Mondays, and it has held one on every Monday since.
