The Vaqueiros of Asturias: Spain's Decorated Cattle Tradition That's Older Than Switzerland's (and Nobody Knows It)

Aug 6
5 min read

Updated: Aug 13

You have probably seen the photographs of Switzerland. The Alpine cows come down from the mountain pastures every September, decorated with flower headdresses and enormous bells, and it has become one of the most photographed traditions in Europe. Beautiful, joyful, heavily documented on Instagram. What almost nobody knows is that Asturias has its own version, older and less famous and completely un-staged, and September is exactly when it happens. The Vaqueiros de Alzada have been doing this since at least the 8th century. The cows still go up in May and come down in September, belled and polished on their shiniest leather straps. And almost no foreign visitor has ever seen it.

Who are the Vaqueiros de Alzada?

The Vaqueiros, from the Spanish for cow people, are a semi-nomadic pastoral community indigenous to the western mountains of Asturias. For centuries they were among the most marginalized people in Spain, excluded from churches, denied burial in consecrated ground, and treated as outsiders by the farming communities settled around them. Their crime was a way of life: they did not stay put. Every spring, they packed up their families, their cattle, their belongings, and moved to the high mountain pastures called brañas. Every autumn they came back down to the lower brañas near the coast for the winter.

The word alzada comes from the Spanish for raising, because they raised their homes and moved them with the seasons. The earliest documented reference to a braña in Asturias dates to 780 AD. This community has been making this journey for at least twelve hundred years. Their story is part of what la España vaciada is really about — communities that built a life in the mountains long before the modern world decided remote places were not worth caring about.

The ascent in May and the descent in September

The old accounts describe the ascent to the summer brañas as a near-festival in itself. The cows wore their shiniest leather straps and their loudest bells, announcing their passage to the surrounding villages. The families sang. It was understood as a happy journey. The descent in September was more bittersweet, the summer ending, the return to the lower pastures before winter.

Today the cattle still move between the high and low brañas on a similar calendar, though trucks handle much of the transport that was once done on foot. But the Feria del Puerto Somiedo on September 8th remains a genuine market day in the high mountain, when farmers bring cattle down and deals are made in the traditional way. It is one of the oldest livestock fairs in Spain and almost entirely unknown outside the region. Asturias in September is extraordinary for exactly this reason.

The Fiesta Vaqueira

Every last Sunday of July, the Braña de Aristébano in western Asturias hosts the Fiesta Vaqueira, also called the Vaqueirada. It is declared a Festival of National Tourist Interest by the Spanish government. The centerpiece is a traditional Vaqueira wedding, in which at least one member of the couple must have Vaqueiro roots, and the ceremony follows ancient ritual. Surrounding it are folk music, traditional dress, and a gathering that functions as much as a reunion of a dispersed community as a public festival. It is small, authentic, and completely unlike anything on the tourist circuit.

The Braña de la Pornacal: year-round

You do not need to plan around a festival to experience the world the Vaqueiros built. The Braña de la Pornacal in Somiedo Natural Park is the largest and best-preserved collection of traditional thatched-roof mountain cabins in all of northwestern Spain. The stone cabins with teito roofs, thatched with Scotch broom and rethatched every fifteen years by trained craftsmen, have been standing in these high meadows for centuries. The hike up from the village of Villar de Vildas takes about an hour, around four kilometers, through mountain pastures where cattle graze freely. The braña itself sits in an extraordinary mountain landscape, completely intact, completely quiet.

Somiedo is also the best place in Spain to see wild brown bears in the wild. The Cantabrian brown bear has made a remarkable comeback here and late summer is one of the better windows for sightings. A trip that combines the braña, the Feria del Puerto, and bear watching in the early mornings is one of those rare weeks in Spain that gives you something genuinely unlike anything else.

The neighbor tradition: the Pasiegos of Cantabria

Just over the mountains in Cantabria, the Pasiegos of the Pas valley practiced the same seasonal migration for centuries — moving their cattle between multiple stone farmhouses at different altitudes, following the grass as it grew. The Pasiego tradition is less publicly visible than the Vaqueiro one, but the Pas valley is one of the most beautiful and culturally distinct valleys in the northern coast, and the sobao pasiego, the golden buttery sponge cake made with Pasiego butter, is one of the best things you can eat in northern Spain. A full guide to the Pasiegos is coming to Travel-Casa shortly.

When to go

Late spring through early autumn is the window when the brañas are occupied and the cattle are in the high meadows. Late summer and early autumn, particularly August and September, combine the active brañas with the best bear-watching conditions. The Feria del Puerto Somiedo is September 8th every year. The Fiesta Vaqueira is the last Sunday in July. Come in October and the brañas are empty and the mountain turns golden. May, when the cattle make the ascent to the high pastures, is one of the most beautiful times of all — the happy journey, as the old accounts called it.

Where to stay

Pola de Somiedo is the main village inside the natural park and the practical base for both the Braña de la Pornacal and the Feria del Puerto. Small rural guesthouses are the norm and they book up in August, so plan ahead. Here are places to stay:

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More from the north

The full Asturias guide covers the Picos de Europa, the prehistoric cave art, the cider culture, and the wild Atlantic coast. And if this kind of living tradition is your thing, the northern coast of Spain from the Basque Country through Cantabria, Asturias, and Galicia is one long thread of exactly this.