Kingdom of Asturias

A mountain refuge that became the origin story of Christian Spain. When Muslim armies destroyed the Visigothic kingdom after 711, the Cantabrian range in the far north was left largely alone - poor, remote, and not worth the cost of holding. A local leader named Pelayo defeated a Muslim column at Covadonga around 722, an event of modest military scale that later chroniclers made the founding moment of the Reconquista, and which Spanish nationalism has been reworking ever since. The kingdom that grew from it, based first at Cangas de Onis and then at Oviedo, deliberately presented itself as the Visigothic monarchy in exile, reviving Toledo's law and court titles to claim legitimate succession. Alfonso II established that programme, and during his reign a tomb identified as the apostle James was discovered at Compostela - the beginning of a pilgrimage that reshaped northern Spain. Alfonso III pushed the frontier to the Douro, resettling a depopulated zone. The distinctive pre-Romanesque churches around Oviedo survive from this period and are a World Heritage site. On his death in 910 the kingdom was divided among his sons, and the centre of gravity moved south to Leon. Asturias survived as a principality, and the Spanish heir still takes its title. Oviedo was the capital and holds the Camara Santa. The Cross of the Angels and the Victory Cross are the kingdom's surviving royal treasures. Covadonga is now a major Spanish shrine. Asturian, a Romance language, still has speakers. The region's mountains later made it a mining and labour stronghold.

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