Gijón marina is right in the centre, on the west side of the Santa Catalina headland and 450 metres from the Plaza Mayor, according to the Ayuntamiento. You can walk there or take EMTUSA routes 4 and 6; by car, the handiest option is the Parking Fomento, with 250 short-stay spaces about 370 metres away.
Hardly anyone in Gijón says "marina": they say El Muelle, which is what locals call it, according to the marina itself. It sits right in the centre, on the west side of the Santa Catalina headland, and for anyone without a boat it is above all a walk: four basins full of masts, quays with their own names and a century and a half of coal and fishing history. This is what you need to get there, park and make sense of what you see, checked in October 2026 on the websites of Gijón City Council (Ayuntamiento) and the Puerto Deportivo.
Where it is and how to walk there
The marina takes up the western shore of the Cimadevilla peninsula, between the old quarter and the Fomento area. Its offices are in the Antigua Rula building, on calle Claudio Alvargonzález, which is the reference the council listing gives; according to the Ayuntamiento, the marina is 450 metres from the Plaza Mayor.
Walking is the best way to enjoy it: from the Plaza Mayor you are down at the quay in a few minutes, and from there you can carry on towards Poniente or climb into the old quarter. For a walk through the streets above, in order, see the guide to what to see in Cimadevilla.
By bus
The marina's listing on the council website gives two EMTUSA city bus routes to get there: the 4 and the 6. If you are coming from elsewhere in the city, the practical thing is to check on the EMTUSA website which of the two passes closer to where you start.
By car: where to park
The quay itself has a car park underneath: there is an underground car park on the Fomento jetty. According to the council's map layer of short-stay car parks, the Parking Fomento offers 250 short-stay spaces and is about 370 metres in a straight line from the marina offices. The Cimadevilla car park is closer still, at about 290 metres, although that layer does not give its number of spaces.
If those are full, the next ones are the Parking Náutico, with 110 short-stay spaces, about 700 metres away, and the Parking Poniente, with 710 spaces, about 800 metres away. The distances are in a straight line, worked out from the position the Ayuntamiento gives for each place; on foot they are a little more. How to carry on from here to the top of the headland is in the guide on getting to the Elogio del Horizonte.
The basins, one by one
The marina is split into four basins: the outer harbour (antepuerto), the inner basin, the Fomentín basin and the Fomento basin. The one that shelters them all is the outer breakwater, called Santa Catalina or Lequerica, after José Lequerica Aguirre, the engineer who directed the work; it was finished in 1864 and takes the swell head on.
The inner basin is the oldest and the one that sits right against the town. It is closed to the north by the Victoria quay, which Gijón calls the Muellín: it was extended in 1870 to house the fish market, the Antigua Rula. Next to it is the Madera quay, from 1872. The story of the rula and the fishwives who worked there is in our guide to the fishwives of Cimavilla.
Further west come the Fomento quays, the westernmost of all. The Sociedad de Fomento, a company founded in 1879, began building them in 1885, and with them five blocks were reclaimed from the sea: the extension everyone now calls Fomento. At the end, the curved Fomento breakwater forms the eastern arm of Poniente beach.
From coal to sailing boats
There was a harbour here long before there were quays. In what is now the plaza del Marqués, a fish-salting works operated between the 3rd and 5th centuries, a sign that the west shore of the headland was already used as an anchorage. The first basin was built in 1595 and destroyed in 1749. The port grew in the 19th century as an outlet for coal from the mining valleys, as its own website tells it, and Jovellanos was already writing in 1804 that the works on the new port were among the best in Spain.
Then it became too small. Gijón argued over whether to enlarge it or build a new one by Cape Torres; those in favour of the new port, the so-called muselistas, won, and El Musel opened in 1907. The old port became a fishing harbour in the sixties. The plan to turn it into a marina was approved in 1986 and the works were declared finished on 14 February 1991: the basins were dredged, the Antigua Rula was restored and the Jardines de la Reina were pedestrianised. Since 1 January 2006 a private company has run it under a concession from the Gijón Port Authority (Autoridad Portuaria de Gijón).
What is on the quay today
According to the Ayuntamiento, the marina has more than 600 berths and a Blue Flag. Besides the boats of people who live here or are passing through, there are activities for anyone arriving without a boat: jet skis, paddle surfing, kayaking, boat hire, boat trips and dinghy sailing, which is the list the council listing gives.
For the walk, two recent pieces make good landmarks: the Letronas, unveiled in 2011, and the Árbol de la Sidra (Cider Tree), unveiled in 2013. Both stand around the marina, a few steps from the boats.
Checked
Facts checked in October 2026 on: Gijón City Council (listing for the Puerto Deportivo de Gijón, with address, distance to the Plaza Mayor, bus routes, berths and activities; map layer of short-stay car parks), the Puerto Deportivo de Gijón website (welcome and history) and Wikipedia (history, quays and basins of the Gijón marina, based on García Quirós, 2007).
Quick questions
Where can I park near Gijón marina?
The Parking Fomento has 250 short-stay spaces about 370 metres in a straight line from the marina offices, and the Cimadevilla car park is about 290 metres away. A little further are the Parking Náutico, with 110 spaces, and the Parking Poniente, with 710.
Which bus goes to Gijón marina?
The council listing for the marina gives EMTUSA routes 4 and 6.
Why do people in Gijón call it El Muelle?
Because before it was a marina it was the town's port, first for coal and later for fishing. El Musel opened in 1907, and the old port became a marina through works declared finished in 1991.