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Luarca (Ḷḷuarca in Asturian and coofficially^[1]) is a parish and the principal town in the municipality of Valdés in Asturias, Spain.

Luarca (town) is a fishing and pleasure port. Luarca (parish) had a population of 4,670 (2021), and an area of 5.84 km² (2.25 sq mi). The town is 90 km (56 mi) from Oviedo, the capital of Asturias. The Nobel laureate for Medicine in 1959, Severo Ochoa, was born in Luarca. It is well known for its beautiful architecture, landscapes, gastronomy, and tourist attractions. San Timoteo festivities usually attract thousands of people every August.

Museo del Calamar Gigante, said to be the world’s only museum dedicated to the giant squid, was based in the town from its opening in 2010 to its destruction by a storm in 2014; it reopened at a new location in the centre of town in 2022.

Etymology

Xosé Lluis García Arias proposes two possible etymologies for the place name ‘Luarca’, attested in medieval Latin as ‘uillam Luarcam’ (912), both of Latin origin:

From “ARCAM” (“ark”, but which could also mean “cistern, reservoir”) and the pronoun (later article) “ILLUM”, although this theory faces a significant problem: the difference in gender between the article (neuter) and “ARCAM” (feminine) would make this combination impossible or highly unlikely. For this reason, García Arias considers the second possibility more likely:
From “*(VILLAM) LUPERCAM”, in relation to “Lupercus”, the name of a Roman god and also documented as a noun referring to the priests who practiced the cult of this god. Thus, it would have evolved from LUPERCAM > *lloberca > *lloerca > *lluerca —> lluarca, with a change from the diphthong ue to ua, which is entirely acceptable in medieval Western Asturian, where this diphthong could be highly unstable.^[2] This evolution might also explain the form used by Valdesan poet Fernán Coronas when referring to the town in the early 20th century as “Tsubarca” (Ḷḷubarca).