History of our Hamlet
Vilavedelle is not just a common hamlet. In the nearby area (Villadun, Arnao, Figueras…) you can find remains dating from the Acheulean culture and from the protohistoric period, as well as a large number of catalogued forts.
In those remote times, the region was inhabited by the Egobarros, who were included in the Lugo area during the Roman domination, which at the time reached the Navia River.
Already in the Middle Ages, the municipality of Castropol appeared as a recognized settlement dependent on the Monastery of Taule (currently Tol, very close to our hamlet) and later also influenced by the enormous power of the Monastery of San Juan de Corias. This area was, for a long time, in continuous disputes with the area of Lugo.
In 1154, King Alfonso VII put an end to the disputes by ceding the lands between the Eo and Navia rivers to the prelate of Oviedo. Since then, and despite historical rivalries between the two banks, Castropol and the area of Vilavedelle have remained linked to Asturias.
Around 1275, Alfonso X “the Wise” founded Puebla de Rovoredo (now Reboledo), which appears to be the first town to emerge in Asturias, possibly at the request of Ribadeo, and prior to the decision to create a new town in Castropol, a place with a marked defensive and commercial character.
A finales del siglo XIX, la idea de enlazar los acuartelamientos de artillería del Ferrol con las fábricas de armas y explosivos de Asturias, tomó forma de ferrocarril. Se construyeron 110 túneles y 27 viaductos a lo largo de 320 kilómetros. 47 estaciones custodiaban su recorrido: Vilavedelle era una de ellas. Aún hoy el tren de la FEVE tiene aquí su parada.
En el siglo XIX, con la invasión francesa se trasladó la Junta Superior de Asturias a Castropol, principal concejo de la zona libre. Fue un siglo convulso administrativamente para la Villa de Castropol llegándose a trasladar a esta villa la capital judicial.
In the 14th century, Castropol established itself as the economic and administrative centre between the Navia and Eo areas. However, disputes with the community of Ribadeo would continue until the 18th century. It was then that the English took Ribadeo, Castropol and other towns by the estuary, an occupation that lasted a short time after a ransom for their independence was paid. For a long time, Vilavedelle was also a meeting point and crossroads where cart wheels were repaired. The limestone that came from its quarries was highly valued for over a century. Some of it was transported by “a lancha da pedra” (stone barge) that sailed up the estuary to the ships waiting there. That same stone, the earth stone, followed a different path. In “Os Caleiros”, in Vilavedelle, it was heated for thirty-six hours until it became a kind of dust, which covered a large part of the cultivable land in western Asturias as fertilizer. This lime was not only used as a building material, but also as a disinfectant for contaminated places and very effective in its medicinal use against the typhus and cholera bacilli.
In the 19th century, during the French invasion, the “Junta Superior de Asturias” (Asturian Higher Committee) was moved to Castropol, the main municipality of the free zone. From the administrative point of view, it was a turbulent century for Castropol, with the legal capital being moved to this town.
But it is at the beginning of the 20th century when singular movements coincided in the Ria del Eo which inspire the project presented here. In the summer of 1921, a group of friends who loved the area got together to found the Circulating Popular Library of Castropol and bring culture closer to the people, as a means to achieve both social development and democratic freedoms (as its founder, Vicente Loriente, explains). These ideas are reflected in the manifesto “Por nuestra cultura” (For Our Culture) published in the Castropol newspaper in October, 1921. On November 3rd, 1921, the statutes were presented as a private entity for public service, opening its doors on March 2nd, 1922. In 1924, in this context of intellectual concern, a new school opened its doors in Vilavedelle, the “Lolita Pérez” national school (built with funding from Lolita’s father, an Indiano from this town). In order to finance the library, neighbours went door to door trying to gather the funds required. The inspiring spirit of the library came from the “Institución Libre de Enseñanza ” (Independent Educational Institution), founded in 1876 by Giner de los Ríos, Azcárate and Salmerón. Together with great figures of national and international modernity, they promoted what in 1931 was the patron board of pedagogical missions, whose initial group included Cossío, Álvarez Santullano, Martínez Torner and Alejandro Casona; Asturian most of them.
This intellectual movement determined a profound change in Spanish education. In Castropol, all these liberal reformist ideas fell into the group led by Vicente Loriente, Indiano and philanthropist, creator of the political party “Os Novos”, which soon merged with the reformist party of Melquiades Álvarez, a disciple of Salmerón (shot in 1936). All of this shaped a cultural and educational movement around the “Bibliotecas Circulantes de Asturias” (Circulation Libraries of Asturias), one of which -not the first nor the only one, but a special one - the best known and recognized- is the Popular Circulating Library of Castropol, the one that has its centre in Santiniebla (Cernuda’s nickname for Castropol), “sick bird over the dark hill that moves toward the sea…” The civil war placed Castropol in the national zone, and some organizations from the provincial capital moved over there. After the war, a gradual decline and a decrease in activity and population began, and it has continued unevenly to this day.