Avilés

Avilés needs 1 day: touring the medieval old town, with its arcaded streets, in the morning, and visiting the Centro Niemeyer, the only building in Spain by the celebrated Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, in the afternoon. May-September brings the mildest weather. It's inexpensive by Asturian standards. It was a steel industry powerhouse for much of the 20th century, and its reconversion with the Centro Niemeyer -opened in 2011 as a gift from the architect himself to the city that named him an adoptive son- became a symbol of transforming an industrial urban center into a cultural hub.