Calle Galiana and Balsera palace (Álvarez Acebal Square)
Chapter 8/10 · Avilés
We have just come down Calle Galiana. It was built in the seventeenth century, when the town grew outside the wall. It has two hundred and fifty-two metres of arcades, and under them the floor has two parts: cobbles for the cattle and flat tiles for people. Every year at carnival, boats come sliding down this slope in the Fluvial Descent, among clouds of foam, and it ends in Plaza de España.
We have reached Álvarez Acebal Square. In front of us is the Balsera palace, from the early twentieth century, somewhere between Modernism and Eclecticism, with a tower in a historical style. A rich merchant, Victoriano Fernández Balsera, had it built. Today it is the Municipal Conservatory of Music. Inside it has a very elegant staircase and a vault of leaded glass.
Very close by, on Calle San Francisco, is the church of San Nicolás de Bari, in the old Franciscan convent. The parish moved here in 1849, from the church on Carlos Lobo Square. We continue toward Sabugo, the sailors' quarter. On the way we pass the little Calleja de los Cuernos, Calle de la Cámara, the busiest shopping street in town, and beside the Abastos market square, where there is a market every Monday.
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