Pedro Duro and La Felguera: The Town That Grew Up Around a Blast Furnace

Pedro Duro was a merchant from La Rioja who in the mid-19th century built an ironworks in Langreo, around which La Felguera grew. His company, Duro Felguera, became Spain's largest producer of steel and coal. What's left of the works is a 45-metre cooling tower that since 2006 has housed the Museo de la Siderurgia de Asturias, the MUSI.

In the mid-19th century, on a stretch of flat land by the river, in a Langreo parish then called Turiellos, a merchant from La Rioja began building an ironworks. The hamlets around it gradually came together into a town that took the name of the spot, La Felguera, and the company went on to become Spain's largest producer of steel and coal. When he died, in 1886, the bells and the sirens sounded at the same time. Nine years later, his workers paid for a statue of him. Much of all that is still standing.

Where to stay here: Apartamento con vistas en Santa María · From 49 € per night →

Water, coal and a railway

Pedro Duro Benito was born in Brieva de Cameros, in La Rioja, in 1810 according to Wikipedia; Vivir Asturias says 1811. As a young man he left for Madrid, where he made money in trade and on the stock exchange, and decided to invest it in an iron and steel works. He looked for somewhere to build it and found it in Langreo, which had the three things it needed: water from the Nalón and Candín rivers, coal from the Reales Minas de Langreo, and a way out to the sea along the Carretera Carbonera and the Ferrocarril de Langreo railway, which reached La Felguera in 1854.

With several partners, among them his brother Julián and the Marquis of Pidal, he founded Duro y Compañía. Work began in mid-1857 on a riverside flat known as the Praón de La Felguera; Duro Felguera itself, the company that grew out of that partnership, dates its founding to 1858.

From third to first

In 1875 the La Felguera works was Spain's third-largest iron producer and, a few years later, the largest. According to Wikipedia, the first steel in Asturias was made there in 1887, and in 1943 what was then the largest blast furnace in the country was built there. For much of the 20th century, Duro Felguera was Spain's biggest steel and coal company. At its peak, the works had more than 8,000 workers, according to asturias.com.

The town grew up around it, and by 1895 it already had electric street lighting. From the 1960s onwards the crisis set in, and the steelworks closed in 1984. The Ciudad Tecnológica Valnalón (Valnalón Technology City) was later built on its grounds.

An employer with a doctor and a school

According to Wikipedia, Duro looked after his people more than was usual at the time: medical and pharmaceutical care, savings banks, sickness benefits, cheap housing and schools for the workers' children. He died in La Felguera on the afternoon of 11 March 1886, and the same source says the church bells and the factory sirens sounded at the same time. In his will he left donations to the provincial hospital and to the factory's 2,200 workers.

In 1895 the workers paid for a statue of him, by the sculptor Jerónimo Suñol, with this inscription: “Los obreros de la Fábrica de La Felguera, a su fundador, Pedro Duro” (The workers of the La Felguera Factory, to their founder, Pedro Duro). It stands in the Parque Dolores F. Duro, which was laid out as a place for the workers to rest, and every 29 June, on the feast of San Pedro, flowers are laid there for him. On one side of the park is the church of San Pedro, rebuilt after being burned and blown up in the 1930s; his remains, which were taken to the municipal cemetery during the war, returned to its crypt in 2008.

A town you read on foot

asturias.com describes a walking route of about two hours that starts at the museum and takes in the old La Salle school, where the steelworkers' children were educated; the villas built for engineers and managers on Calle Conde Sizzo, one of them with the date 1918 on its façade; the two chimneys that remain of the old refractory works; and the Urquijo neighbourhood, built between 1916 and 1918 with nine blocks of workers' housing and a chapel.

The museum in the tower

One unmistakable building is left of the factory: a 45-metre cooling tower shaped like a truncated cone. Since 2006 it has housed the Museo de la Siderurgia de Asturias, the MUSI, on three circular floors beneath a skylight from which you can see the chimney wall rising. There's a model of the factory, an explanation of how steel was made, Pedro Duro's office and a room about aspirin and the Bayer factory in Langreo.

According to Turismo Asturias, in November, December and from January to March the centre opens Tuesday to Saturday and on Sunday mornings, with guided tours on Saturdays at 10:00, 13:00 and 15:30 and on Sundays at 10:00 and 13:00. Admission to the centre costs €6 for adults, and there are combined tickets for €8 and €10 that add a visit to a worker's home, the town walk, or both. It's best to check before you go.

In December, Su Excelencia la Fabada

La Felguera also has a winter festival. Su Excelencia la Fabada (His Excellency the Fabada) has been held since 1980, according to Vivir Asturias, and was declared a festival of regional tourist interest in 2020, according to asturias.com. It's organised by the Sociedad de Festejos y Cultura San Pedro, founded in 1908: the town's bars, cider houses and restaurants put on menus with fabada as the main course, and there's a competition with two categories, one for restaurants and one for home cooks.

The dates change every year. Vivir Asturias places it on the first two weekends of December, and the Turismo Asturias events calendar lists it for 12 and 13 December 2026. You can get to La Felguera by train: its station on the Cercanías C-5 line is La Felguera-Nuevo Langreo.

Checked

Facts checked in October 2026 against: Wikipedia (Pedro Duro, La Felguera and Línea C-5 de Cercanías Asturias), Duro Felguera, Vivir Asturias, asturias.com and Turismo Asturias (Museo de la Siderurgia and Su Excelencia la Fabada).