Parque Dorado is the central park of Sama, in Langreo, beside the River Nalón. Manuel del Busto designed it in 1903 on land filled with mine spoil, and it is named after mayor Antonio María Dorado. It has a bandstand, ponds, century-old cedars and La Carbonera, and is listed in the Inventario del Patrimonio Cultural de Asturias.
Parque Dorado is the heart of Sama, the town that serves as Langreo's capital. It is a long garden that follows the River Nalón, with a central promenade, century-old cedars, ponds and a bandstand. It carries a mayor's name, an architect's signature and a regional protection that few parks in the coalfield can claim.
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Who designed it
How it began, in one sentence: after the flood of 1900 a wall was built against the Nalón, and the alluvial land left behind it was filled with mine spoil; that story is told in what to do in Langreo.
What is less often told is who designed it. According to Wikipedia, the commission went in 1903 to Manuel del Busto, who also designed the bandstand. Del Busto was born in Pinar del Río, Cuba, in 1874, was Langreo's municipal architect from 1904 to 1908, and his first known work is the Teatro Palacio Valdés in Avilés, from 1900. He went on to build most of his career in Gijón.
Antonio María Dorado, the mayor who wanted a capital
The park is named after Antonio María Dorado González, born in Riaño in 1830 and died in Sama in 1910. He was mayor of Langreo from 1890 to 1901 and from 1903 to 1909, 18 years in all, for the Conservative Party, and manager of a coal company, the Sociedad Carbonera Santa Ana.
His aim was to make Sama the capital of the municipality and the district, which led to more than one clash with La Felguera, the larger town. Under his terms, Wikipedia says, Sama gained a town hall and a parish church, opened streets and squares, settled its weekly market, brought water to public fountains and channelled the river.
The council's tourism website notes that a monument to him was raised by public subscription alongside the park. According to La Nueva España, it was unveiled in 1906, while Dorado was still alive.
A romantic garden on a spoil heap
In 2014 La Nueva España spoke to Carlos Fernández, Langreo's head gardener, who described it as an early twentieth-century park with "a romantic, French-style design" and "a central promenade of great size". What struck him most were the century-old trees, several cedars among them, which have grown on land filled with mine spoil.
The layout is long and follows the course of the Nalón: a tree-lined main walk down the middle and smaller paths on either side. According to the same gardener, over the previous twenty years the park had been extended by reclaiming Los Llerones, on the other bank, which he called the "Dorado area".
That same year, the paper reported, the Asturian Cultural Heritage Council included it in a selection of 50 historic gardens, along with the Dolores Fernández Duro park in La Felguera. Today it appears on the official list of the Inventario del Patrimonio Cultural de Asturias as a garden, code IPCA-J-31-10, with its inclusion published on 16 February 2016.
What is inside
The best-known piece is La Carbonera, the monument to Luis Adaro paid for by public subscription in 1918. The council's tourism website also lists the monument to labour, the bandstand and the Henschel number 6 steam locomotive, known as Pepe.
Wikipedia adds the Fuente de la Samaritana, the duck pond, the carp pond and a dovecote, and in 2014 La Nueva España counted a multi-sport court, a playground, padel courts and a mini-golf course. It is also the usual stage for the concerts of the Santiago festivities, around 25 July.
A fair warning about Pepe: the council website treats it as present, but Wikipedia refers to it in the past tense. If the locomotive is your main reason to go, it is worth asking at the tourist office first.
Getting there and what to pair it with
The park sits right in the centre of Sama, between Río Nalón, Soto Torres, Campoamor, Leopoldo Fernando Nespral and Miguel de Cervantes streets, and is open all year. By train, the C-5 Cercanías line from Gijón to Laviana stops at Sama-Los Llerones station; the park is joined to the Los Llerones promenade by two bridges and a footbridge. Sama also has a C-2 station, on the other line, which is not next to the C-5 one. How to get around the valley without a car is in this train guide.
To keep walking by the river there is the Mythological Promenade, with its sculptures of creatures from Asturian mythology beside the river.
Checked
Checked in October 2026 against: the Langreo council tourism website (parks), the Principality's official list of the Inventario del Patrimonio Cultural de Asturias, La Nueva España ("Las joyas verdes de Langreo", 2014) and Wikipedia (Parque Dorado, Antonio María Dorado, Manuel del Busto and the C-5 Cercanías Asturias line).
Quick questions
Who designed Parque Dorado in Sama?
According to Wikipedia, the commission went in 1903 to the architect Manuel del Busto, who also designed the bandstand.
Why is it called Parque Dorado?
After Antonio María Dorado, mayor of Langreo from 1890 to 1901 and from 1903 to 1909, who drove it forward; inside there is a monument to him unveiled in 1906.
How do you get to Parque Dorado by train?
The C-5 Cercanías line from Gijón to Laviana stops at Sama-Los Llerones station; the park is joined to the Los Llerones promenade by two bridges and a footbridge.