Asturias' Ancient Capital — Pre-Romanesque Cathedrals, Calle Gascona Cider Alley, and the Start of the Camino Primitivo
Oviedo is the capital of Asturias, a region that was never fully conquered by the Moors and kept the Visigothic Christian kingdom alive — its pre-Romanesque churches, built in the 9th century under Alfonso II, predate everything else in Spanish Romanesque architecture and are collectively UNESCO-listed. The Cathedral of San Salvador houses the Cámara Santa, a pre-Romanesque chapel containing the Shroud of Oviedo and other relics that made the city a medieval pilgrimage destination. Calle Gascona, the Bulevar de la Sidra, is lined with sidrería bars where waiters pour Asturian cider in the tra…
Oviedo was founded in 761 when Fruela I established a monastery on a forested hill the Asturians called Ovetao. His son Alfonso II ('the Chaste') made it capital of the Kingdom of Asturias in 810 and launched the building of the Cathedral — the act that effectively created Asturian pre-Romanesque architecture. The city was the only Christian kingdom capital on the Iberian Peninsula when the rest of the north was still under Moorish rule, which is why Asturians say 'Asturias is Spain, and everything else is reconquered territory.' The city was heavily damaged during the October 1934 Revolution…