Coordinates: 42°30'N 8°06'E? / ?42.5°N -8.1°W? / 42.5; --8.1Coordinates: 42°30'N 8°06'E? / ?42.5°N -8.1°W? / 42.5; --8.1
Country Spain
Capital Santiago de Compostela
Provinces A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense, Pontevedra
Government
- Type Devolved government in a constitutional monarchy
- Body Xunta de Galicia
- President Alberto Núñez Feijóo (PP)
Area
- Total 29,574.4 km2 (11,418.7 sq mi)
Area rank 7th
Highest elevation 2,127 m (6,978 ft)
Population (2009)
- Total 2,796,089
- Density 94.5/km2 (244.9/sq mi)
Population rank 5th
Demonym Galician
galegos (m), galegas (f)
gallegos (m), gallegas (f)
Area code +34 98-
ISO 3166 code ES-GA
Statute of Autonomy 1936
28 April 1981
Official languages Galician and Spanish
Patron Saint St. James (25 July)
Legislature
Parliament 75 deputies
Congress 25 deputies (out of 350)
Senate 19 senators (out of 264)
Website www.xunta.es
Not to be confused with Galicia, a historic region of Poland and Ukraine.
Galicia (Spanish pronunciation: [ga'li?ja]) is an autonomous community and historic region in northwest Spain, with the status of a historic nationality, and descends from one of the first kingdoms of Europe, the Kingdom of Galicia. It is constituted under the Galician Statute of Autonomy of 1981. Its component provinces are A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra. It is bordered by Portugal to the south, the Spanish regions of Castile and León and Asturias to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Bay of Biscay to the north.
Besides its continental territory, Galicia includes the archipelagos of Cíes, Ons, Sálvora, as well as Cortegada Island, the Malveiras Islands, Sisargas Islands, and Arousa Island.
Galicia has roughly 2.78 million inhabitants as of 2008, with the largest concentration in two coastal areas, from Ferrol to A Coruña in the northwest from Vilagarcía to Vigo on the southwest. The capital is Santiago de Compostela, in the province of A Coruña. Vigo, in the province of Pontevedra, is the most populous city, with 297,332 inhabitants (INE 2009).
Galicia has its own historic language, Galician, more closely related to Portuguese than Spanish, and sharing a common Galician-Portuguese root language with the former in the Middle Ages. Some authors even consider present-day Galician and Portuguese to be dialects of a single language, but the prevailing view, endorsed by the Galician Language Institute is that differences, especially in phonology and vocabulary, are large enough to make them two separate languages. Inevitably, the distinction is reinforced by the political border.
History of Galicia
The Axeitos dolmen.The Eirós Cave in the municipality of Triacastela (province of Lugo) preserves animal remains and Neanderthal stone objects from the Middle Paleolithic, thanks to its alkaline chemistry. There are other remnants of the Middle Paleolithic along the lower Miño and in the Ourense depression.
The early celtic culture of the region was to leave significant architectural traces appears to have been centered around veneration of the dead as intermediaries between deities and the living. The society seems to have been organized in a clan structure. Thousands of Megalithic tumuli throughout the territory. Within each tumulus is a stone burial chamber known as a dolmen; the sizes of these chambers vary.
Rich mineral deposits led to the development of Bronze Age metallurgy. Utensils and gold and bronze jewelry from Galicia have been found as far away as the far side of the Pyrenees.
At this time, climate change seems to have driven migration into the region from the vast plateau of Iberia's Meseta Central, increasing the population and causing conflict between communities. Before the Roman invasion, a series of celtic tribes lived in the region, and according to Strabo, Pliny, Herodotus and others, they shared similar Celtic customs.
Castro culture
There are many Celtic castros around Galicia. Here, the Castro de Baroña, province of A Coruña.The castro culture flourished in the second half of the Iron Age; it was a fusion of Bronze Age culture with later developments, and overlapped into the Roman era. One possibility is that the rise of this culture derives from the arrival of the Celts, who invented new techniques of raising livestock, invented the domesticated horse and probably introduced the grain rye. The earliest known Celtic settlement in Galicia was that of the Saefs in the 11th century BC. They conquered the Oestrymnio in the south. They brought new religious beliefs, political organization, and maritime relations extending as far as the British Isles. They were capable fighters; Strabo described them as the most difficult foes the Romans encountered in conquering Lusitania.
Reconstruction of a dwelling from the castro culture.The castros date from this era. These were circular hill forts with multiple concentric walls. Usually there was a trench in front of each wall. Major castros were built in the coastal regions of Fazouro, Santa Tegra, Baroña and O Neixón, and in the interior at Castromao and Viladonga.
One temple survives from this culture, at Elviña near the city of A Coruña. The castro at Meirás conserves a necropolis. Other castros from the Sorotaptic culture have small boxlike structures with ashes from cremations and urn burials. There are also other structures, partially underground, with a container for water, where vestiges of fire indicate that these were the crematoria.
From the end of the Megalithic era there are inscriptions on granite (petroglyphs) in open air, but their origin and significance is unknown. The best known of these are at Campo Lameiro.
Roman rule
The Roman legions first entered the area under Decimus Junius Brutus in 137–136 BC, but the province was only superficially Romanized by the time of Augustus. The Romans were interested in Galicia mainly for its mineral resources. It was made a province under the name Gallaecia. Under Roman rule, the castros lost their defensive value. The Romans brought new technologies, new travel routes, new forms of organizing property, and a new language, though they generally tolerated the existing culture. In the late Roman era, various forms of Christianity began to take root in Galicia.
Middle Ages
Illustration from a Cantigas de Santa Maria manuscriptGalicia's inclusion in the Roman Empire eventually resulted in the arrival of Christianity. The fall of the empire brought the 5th century AD invasions. Galicia fell to the Suevi in 411, who formed the first medieval kingdom to be created in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. In 584, the Visigothic King Leovigild invaded the Suebic kingdom of Galicia and defeated it, bringing it under Visigoth control. During this period a British colony-bishopric was established in Northern Galicia (Britonia) populated by Briton immigrants escaping the Saxon invasion (see Mailoc). During the Moorish invasion of Spain (711-718), the Moors never managed to have any real control over Galicia, and this situation remained unchanged up until 739 when Alfonso I of Asturias successfully drove them out of Galicia; and the region was finally assimilated for good to the Kingdom of Asturias. This era consolidated Galicia as a Christian kingdom speaking a Romance language.
In the 9th century, the rise of the cult of the Apostle James in Santiago de Compostela gave Galicia a particular symbolic importance among Christians, an importance it would hold throughout the Reconquista. As the Middle Ages went on, Santiago became a major pilgrim destination and the Way of Saint James a major pilgrim road, a route for the propagation of Romanesque art and the words and music of the troubadors.
During the 9th and 10th centuries, the counts of Galicia gave fluctuating obedience to their nominal sovereign, and Normans/Vikings occasionally raided the coasts. The Towers of Catoira (Pontevedra) were built as a system of fortifications to stop the Viking raids on Santiago de Compostela.
In 1063, Ferdinand I of Castile divided his kingdom among his sons. Galicia was allotted to Garcia II of Galicia. In 1072, it was forcibly reannexed by Garcia's brother Alfonso VI of Castile, and from that time Galicia remained part of the Kingdom of Castile and Leon, although under varying degrees of self-government.
In the 13th century Alfonso X of Castile standardized the Castilian language and made it the language of court and government. In the face of increasing centralization and Castilian hegemony, the Galician language began a slow decadence that would culminate in the Séculos Escuros ('Dark Centuries'), roughly the 16th through mid-18th centuries, when written Galician practically disappeared, and the language survived only orally, marginalizing Galician-speakers.
GALICIA
This Atlantic corner of North-west Spain, known as "the land of the 1000 rivers", has a mountainous inland area, and a rugged coastline of cliffs, lagoons, beautiful beaches and small islands. The landscape is dotted with ancient dolmen, hill forts, and stone crosses and chapels.
The native name for the land is Galiza, and the people are Galegos. An ancient Celtic mother goddess named Cailleach, who's name in Latin was 'Calaicia', is probably where the name Galicia originated, with the Romans calling the land Gallaecia, and the people the Gallaeci.
The Galician language is one of the four official languages of Spain, spoken by most of the inhabitants of the region. The folklore of the area shows its Celtic origins, and the traditional musical instrument is the 'Gaita', or bagpipe.
The Region's capital city is Santiago de Compostela, and it's four provinces are A Coruna, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra, with a population of almost 3 million.
The ancient people of Galiza left a stone legacy of thousands of Dolmen (three standing stones with a huge slab across the top, forming burial chambers), or 'Mamoas'. The Celtic tribes had heavily settled the area by the 5th century B.C., and lived in 'Castroes', circular fortified settlements of several buildings surrounded by a defensive ditch, normally situated on hilltops.
Celtic ruins of Castro de Santa Tegra, southern Galicia, looking south
South of the capital of Vigo - a big city with an old medieval town center - are the out-of-the-way Celtic ruins of Castro de Santa Tegra (Santa Tecla), high on Mount Santa Tegra, overlooking the surf of the Atlantic Ocean. An ancient Celtic settlement of hundreds of round stone-walled dwellings, dating from at least the 2nd to 1st centuries BC, the ruins have spectacular views - south over the Rio Miño, and across to what is now Portugal, and to the north along the Galician coast and the town of A Guarda.
Celtic ruins of Castro de Santa Tegra, southern Galicia, looking north
Re-discovered in 1913, with the last excavation in 1988, only part of the ruins have been uncovered, showing houses, stores, workshops, yards and granaries, and even rainwater ditches and tanks. The population may have been 3000-5000 people of the Grovii tribe, and it is thought this was an important center controlling maritme traffic along the coast and up-river, dying off after the arrival of the Romans, with their new roads and settlements on lower land.
Also up the mountain is an old Christian pilgrimage road, lined with huge crosses and rest areas, with many stairs leading to the old hermitage of Santa Tegra, with it's courtyard and outbuildings. At the summit there is a good museum, cafe, and many stalls selling local Galician souvenirs !
Hermitage of Santa Tegra
Breoghan is said to have built the oldest lighthouse in the Atlantic world at Brigantia - the end of the known Celtic world to the ancients in Europe, Finisterra, or Land's End - later rebuilt by the Romans, and today called A Coruna or La Coruna.
L - Gaelic chief Breoghan who's sons sailed to Ireland from Brigantia (La Coruna)
R - Chuck Wall by the oldest working lighthouse in Europe at La Coruna
R - Chuck Wall by the oldest working lighthouse in Europe at La Coruna
The popular coastal resort and surf spot is home to the oldest continuously working lighthouse in Europe. Originally built by the Romans, who occupied Brigantia, you can still see the ancient foundations they built under the 17th century existing lighthouse. The view of the surrounding coastline from the top is spectacular, not to mention the huge tiled compass rose with images representing the Celtic nations, plus one local legend. The nations are named in their own native languages.
Celtic Nations compass rose, La Coruna, Galicia, Spain
The Swabians ruled the land for 170 years, calling it Suevia, until overrun by Visigoths, who in 711 A.D. had their larger Spanish kingdom invaded and taken by Islamic warriors, who left Galiza largely untouched.
Long after the arrival of the Christian Church, the discovery, in the Middle Ages, of the tomb of the Apostle Santiago (St.James), started the pilgrimages of thousands to the cathedral of the new town of Santiago de Compostela, and resulted in the famous 'Way of Santiago', or 'Way of St.James', with its numerous monasteries, churches, and chapels.
Hostal de los Reyes Católicos (left) - (right) Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
The Camiño de Santiago has been a pilrimage route since the 10th century, with Christian travellers heading from all over Europe to pay homage to St.James the Apostle, who brought the new religion to the Celts of the Iberian Peninsula. His relics were rediscovered here in 814, the first church being buit in 829, and the existing cathedral started in 1075 and finished in 1122. The old pilgrimage road is now one for hikers and cyclists, who happily arrive in the main square, the Praza do Obradoiro, at the end of their long journey. There can often be heard the sound of the Galician bagpipe, the gaita galega, played by gaiteros in traditional costume.
Right - Galician piper gaitero Pedro Perez
The country was ruled by the King of Galiza and Leon, a neighbouring region, until Ferdinand 3rd, King of Castille absorbed it into his expanding kingdom.
Several hundred years later the Galician culture and language was only alive in the poorer people of the land, until a 19th century revival, which intensified into the next century. Various Nationalist parties arose in the 1920s-30s, and the Spanish parliament approved the Autonomy Statute for Galicia in 1937, but it did not come into force because of the Spanish Civil War, and Galicia finally became an Autonomous Community in 1981.
The Celtic music tradition is alive and well in Galicia - our own Hamish recorded a great interview with famous local musicians Hamish & Carlos Nuñez for his radio show, talking about Carlos' career, Celtic history, Galicia and her music, the gaita (bagpipes).
his new themed album Alborada Do Brasil, with a Brazilian/Galician musical journey discovered by Carlos while personally researching his great-grandfather, a piper who had emigrated to Brazil, leaving behind a legacy of bagpiping. Carlos' enthusiasm - for Galicia, music, all things Celtic, and life itself - is fabulous, and infectious !
The modern Galician civil flag dates from the 19th century, and is a white field with a diagonal blue band. Originally it was a copy of the naval flag of the Galician port of A Coruña - a blue diagonal St.Andrew's cross over a white field, as the saint is popular in Galicia. It was modified in 1891 due to confusion with the flag of the Imperial Russian Navy, and one of the arms of the cross was dropped.
The State flag of Galicia dates from the Franco era, with the background of the civil flag, and a coat of arms in the centre. The arms consist of a blue shield topped by a crown, with a yellow goblet surrounded by seven white crosses. This comes from the old flag of the Kingdom of Galicia before the creation of the modern flag in the 19th century, with the goblet being the Holy Grail, by legend kept at Finisterre, Galicia, before being removed to the British Isles. The Apostle St.James relics are buried in the fabulous 10th century Cathedral in Santiago de Compostello, one of seven Galician cities represented by the crosses on the shield, and is said to have brought the Chalice from the Last Supper to 'the land's end' of Galicia.The name Galicia is derived from the Latin name of a Celtic tribe that settled near the Douro River (the Calaici). The ancient Greek geographer Strabo, referred to the Galicians as like the Celts of Gaul than the peoples of other parts of the peninsula, with their long hair and peculiar beer. The cultural similarities with the Gauls were also pointed out by the Roman geographer Paulus Orosius (who was himself from Bracara Augustus -- now Braga -- then in the province of Gallaecia) several hundred years later, and by travel writers following the way of Saint James (o Camiño) in the middle ages.
Galicia's Celtic links are also supported by medieval monastic writings from Ireland (particularly the Book of Invasions, or Lebhor Gaballah), according to which the Galician king Breogan and his ancestors set sail for Ireland, having sighted it from a tall tower on the coast at Brigantia (modern day A Coruña) a tower that many believe could have been the predecessor of the Torre de Hercules, which was built (but more likely re-built) by the Romans and is the longest operating lighthouse in the world. Modern day genetic research has also found that the people of Galicia are actually closely related to those of Scotland, Ireland, Isle Of Man, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany.
Celtic influences persist in the modern language and culture of Galicia, as Celtic-speaking people began settling the region during the Bronze Age and persisted until the Middle Ages with the arrival on the north coast of Galicia of Britons fleeing invading hoards of Angles, Saxons and Vikings and the creation of the monastery of Bretoña (note the similarity with Bretaña, the Galician name for both Britain and Brittany) and later the diocese of Bretoña and Mondoñedo in Lugo province.
There was a Roman presence in Galicia as early as the second century BC, but this northwestern corner of modern-day Spain was never under strong Roman control. The Swabians took over when Rome fell, ruling the Kingdom of Galicia for 170 years until they were forced into a union with the Visigoths who ruled the areas of Leon and Castile that were not yet under Moorish control. For the next few centuries, Galicia was claimed by Castilian lords, but often invaded and ruled over by Normans and Vikings. The area finally became a permanent part of the kingdom of Castile and Leon in 1072. In the 15th century, the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella marginalized Galician culture by declaring Spanish to be the only official language and Catholicism to be the only official religion.
Spain's fascist dictator General Franciso Franco, who ruled from the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 until his death in 1975 and who despite being born in Ferrol, Galicia, continued the marginalization of Galicia and it's people, suppressing the Galician language and most cultural and political freedoms (some of them absurd, such as insisting that any public performance of bagpipes -- Galicia's national instrument par excellence -- should be prohibited unless the bagpipe itself was decorated red and yellow, the of the Spanish flag).
Subsequently, Galicia has always been a land of mass emigration, with approximately 2 million people leaving for foreign lands since the beginning of the 20th century (compared with a current population of 2.7 million). Most towns of any size in Latin America (especially in Argentina, Brazil and Cuba) -- as well as in Europe--have, or have had, large Galician social centres, with the most famous being that the former Galician Centre of Havana, which now being home to Cuba's world renowned National Ballet, maintains various frescoes and other paintings of Galician landscapes and depicting rural life in Galicia.
Due to strong nationalist movements in this region during the 19th and 20th centuries, Galicia became the third region on the Spanish State (after the Basque Country and Catalonia) to be granted "autonomous community" status in the 1970s, with its own statute that recognizes Galicia as a "historic nationality". The people of Galicia had already voted overwhelmingly in favour of autonomy in the summer of 1936, in a statute that would have promoted the use of the Galician language and introduced various liberal reforms. However, just weeks later the start of the Spanish Civil War and rapid defeat of the Republic in Galicia put a stop to these aspirations. There are still groups struggling for full independence today. others, such as the governing BNG, seek greater autonomy and the recognition of Galicia's full nationhood (albeit without a need for independence), along the lines of Scotland and Wales in the United Kingdom. The Galician government is currently administrated by a coalition of the Galician Socialists (the local branch of the Spanish Socialists who govern Spain) and the moderate left-wing Galician nationalists of the BNG. in 2005, President Emilio Touriño (socialist) and Vice President Anxo Quintana (BNG) replaced Galicia's octogenarian former Franco minister Manuel Fraga who had ruled the autonomous region for over a decade.
