El Musel is a seaport located in the north of Spain in Asturias, and in the middle point of the Cantabrian Sea coast, it is the Port of Gijón as a gateway to Europe through the A-66 and A-8 highways, allowing direct access to the west and centre of the Iberian Peninsula.

El Musel was built as a result of the industrial revolution that began in the second half of the 19th century in Asturias, based on iron and steel manufacturing and more particularly on coal mining in the central basins of the region.

The implementation of these industries was in turn to promote the progress of trade, the growth of the main urban centres and the adaptation of new communicational routes in the shape of roads, rail and ports, introducing a new capitalist production system into the region in contrast to the traditional agricultural economy.

The regions rough orthography made communications with the Castilian meseta difficult by both road and rail (the Gijón-Oviedo-León line over the Pajares bridge did not begin running until 1884) and the only way of ensuring the sale of the new industrial products was by sea, leading the need for a large commercial port in the central area close to mines and factories.

Another project was drafted by Pedro Antonio de Mesa in 1856, of which the part corresponding to the Santa Catalina or Lequerica sea wall was completed in 1864 to shelter vessels from storms while waiting their turn to load cargo.

Enlarging the Port of Gijón will allow for modern, new facilities capable of meeting the needs of its customers, adapting to future demand and serving the modernisation of Asturian industry.

The actual expansion project of the Port of Gijón consists of constructing a new breakwater that, starting from Cape Torres and running for a total length of 3,834 metres along three differently structured alignments, was to form a wharf containing 140 Ha of sheltered waters.

The inner slopes located to the West and South of the wharf complete the backfill protection, with a length of 1,732 m to give a total surface area of 145 Ha with land entirely reclaimed from the sea.