TRAVEL GUIDES DIRECTORY: COSTA VERDE SPAIN

HISTORY

The Kingdom of Asturias was the first Christian nation to be established in the Iberian Peninsula after it was conquered by the Islamic Moors in 711.

Don Pelayo, a Visigoth nobleman, established the kingdom by rebelling against the Moorish governor of Asturias in 718. Not long after, at the Battle of Covadonga under Pelayo s leadership, an overwhelming defeat on the Moors was meted out. This event took place in 722, although some sources place it as early as in 718, and others in 721. At some point, Don Pelayo was elected king of a small area which included a mountainous region along northwestern Spain , just west of the Basques who similarly remained independent of Moorish power.

Pelayo founded a dynasty in Asturias, a reign that survived for centuries and gradually expanded the kingdom's boundaries until all of northwest Iberia was included by around 775. Further expansion of the kingdom to the south took place, about as far as Lisbon, Portugal, during the reign of Alfonso II from 791 to 842.

Asturias became a stronghold of Christian heritage in the period of grandeur that followed. Asturias characterized a pre-Romanesque architectural style that featured intricate decorative elements which can still be seen in the churches of San Salvador de Valdedi Santa Mar del Naranco and San Juli de los Prados, which have all been declared Heritage of Mankind by UNESCO.

The kingdom was known as Asturias until 924, when it became the Kingdom of León . It continued under that name until after Ferdinand III became king, and the region was incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile in 1230.

In 1981 it became an autonomous region, with the name of Principau d'Asturies ( Principality of Asturias ). Asturias has its own language variety called Asturianu and their flag is light blue with a cross called Cruz de la Victoria (Cross of Victory). The Cross of Victory jewel is being kept in the Cathedral at Oviedo , the capital of Asturias.

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