Llanes

Llanes is a harbour town on the Asturian coast, sheltered between the Cantabrian Sea and the mountains. Granted a charter under Alfonso IX, it acquired walls and a defensive tower in the Middle Ages. Fishing and maritime trade flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: whales, sardines and other fish supplied the port, while salt supported the trade. In the eighteenth century war, the decline of whaling and demands for sailors to serve in the royal navy weakened its maritime economy.