Asturias
Asturias officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous community in northwest Spain.
It is coextensive with the province of Asturias and contains some of the territory that was part of the larger Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages. Divided into eight comarcas, the autonomous community of Asturias is bordered by Cantabria to the east, by León to the south, by Lugo to the west, and by the Cantabrian Sea to the north.
Asturias is situated along the Atlantic Ocean in the North, spreading to a mountainous setting with vast greenery and lush vegetation, making it part of Green Spain. The region has a maritime climate. It receives plenty of annual rainfall and little sunshine by Spanish standards and has very moderate seasons, most often averaging in the lower 20s Celsius. Heat waves are rare due to mountains blocking southerly winds. Winters are very mild for the latitude, especially near sea level.
The most important cities are the communal capital, Oviedo, the seaport and largest city Gijón, and the industrial town of Avilés. Other municipalities in Asturias include Cangas de Onís, Cangas del Narcea, Gozón, Grado, Langreo, Llanera, Laviana, Lena, Llanes, Mieres, Siero, Valdés, Vegadeo and Villaviciosa.
History
Asturias was inhabited first by Homo erectus, then by Neanderthals. Since the Lower Paleolithic era, and during the Upper Paleolithic, Asturias was characterized by cave paintings in the eastern part of the area. In the Mesolithic period, a native culture developed, that of the Asturiense, and later, with the introduction of the Bronze Age, megaliths and tumuli were constructed. In the Iron Age, the territory came under the cultural influence of the Celts; the local Celtic peoples, known as the Astures, were composed of tribes such as the Luggones, the Pesicos, and others, who populated the entire area with castros. Today the Astur Celtic influence persists in place names, such as those of rivers and mountains.With the conquest of Asturias by the Romans under Augustus, the region entered into recorded history. The Astures were subdued by the Romans, but were never fully conquered. After several centuries without foreign presence, they enjoyed a brief revival during the Germanic invasions of the late 4th century AD, resisting Suebi and Visigoth raids throughout the 5th century AD, ending with the Moorish invasion of Spain. However, as it had been for the Romans and Visigoths, the Moors did not find mountainous territory easy to conquer, and the lands along Spain's northern coast never became part of Islamic Spain. With the beginning of the Moorish conquest in the 8th century, this region became a refuge for Christian nobles, and in 722, a de facto independent kingdom was established, the Regnum Asturorum, which was to become the cradle of the incipient Reconquista.
In the 10th century, the Kingdom of Asturias gave way to the Kingdom of León, and during the Middle Ages the geographic isolation of the territory made historical references scarce. Through the rebellion of Prince Henry in the 14th century, the Principality of Asturias was established. The most famous proponents of independence were Gonzalo Peláez and Queen Urraca, who, while achieving significant victories, were ultimately defeated by Castilian troops. After its integration into the Kingdom of Spain, Asturias provided the Spanish court with high-ranking aristocrats and played an important role in the colonisation of America. Since 1388, the heir to the Castilian throne has been styled Prince of Asturias. In the 16th century, the population reached 100,000 for the first time, and within another century that number would double due to the arrival of American corn.
In the 18th century, Asturias was one of the centres of the Spanish Enlightenment. The renowned Galician thinker Benito de Feijóo settled in the Benedictine Monastery of San Vicente de Oviedo. Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, a polymath and prominent reformer and politician of the late 18th century, was born in the seaside town of Gijón.
During the Napoleonic Wars, Asturias was the first Spanish province to rise up against the French following the abdication of King Ferdinand VII on 10 May 1808. Riots began in Oviedo and on 25 May the local government formally declared war on Napoleon with 18,000 men called to arms to resist invasion.
The Industrial Revolution came to Asturias after 1830 with the discovery and systematic exploitation of coal mines and iron factories at the mining basins of Nalón and Caudal. At the same time, there was significant migration to the Americas ; those who succeeded overseas often returned to their native land much wealthier. These entrepreneurs were known collectively as Indianos, for having visited and made their fortunes in the West Indies and beyond. The heritage of these wealthy families can still be seen in Asturias today: the region is dotted with many large modernista villas, as well as cultural institutions such as free schools and public libraries.
Asturias played an important part in the events that led up to the Spanish Civil War. In October 1934, Asturian miners and other workers staged an armed uprising to oppose the coming to power of the right-wing CEDA party, which had obtained three ministerial posts in the centralist government of the Second Spanish Republic. For a month, a Popular Front Committee exercised control in southern Asturias, while local workers committees sprang up elsewhere in the region. A defense committee led by anarcho-syndicalist supporters took power in Oviedo. Troops under the command of a then-unknown general named Francisco Franco Bahamonde were brought from Spanish Morocco to suppress the revolt. Franco applied tactics normally reserved for overseas colonies, using troops of the Spanish Legion and Moroccan troops; ferocious oppression followed.
As a result, Asturias remained loyal to the republican government during the Spanish Civil War, and was the scene of an extraordinary defence in extreme terrain, the Battle of El Mazuco. With Franco eventually gaining control of all of Spain, Asturias — traditionally linked to the Spanish Crown — was known merely as the "Province of Oviedo" from 1939 until Franco's death in 1975. The province's name was restored fully after the return of democracy to Spain in 1977. In the 50s and 60s the industrial progress of Asturias continued with the constitution of national enterprises like Ensidesa and Hunosa, but the 80s was the decade of a dramatic industrial restructuring.
On 30 December 1981, Asturias became an autonomous community within the decentralised territorial structure established by the Constitution of 1978. Rafael Luis Fernández Álvarez, who had previously served as the president of the Regional Council since 1978, became the first president of the Principality of Asturias, upon the adoption of autonomy. The Asturian regional government holds comprehensive competencies in important areas such as health, education and protection of the environment. The current president, elected in 2019, is Adrián Barbón.
Administrative and territorial division
Asturias is organised territorially into 78 municipalities, further subdivided into parishes.Asturias is also divided into eight comarcas, which are not administrative divisions. They are only used as a system to homogenize the statistical data made by the Principality.
Municipalities of Asturias
Parishes
The parroquia or parish is the subdivision of the Asturian municipalities. Currently, there are 857 parishes integrating the 78 municipalities in the region, and they usually coincide with the ecclesiastic divisions.Geography and climate
The Cantabrian Mountains form Asturias's natural border with the province of León to the south. In the eastern range, the Picos de Europa National Park contains the highest and arguably most spectacular mountains, rising to at the Torrecerredo peak. Other notable features of this predominantly limestone range are the Parque Natural de Redes in the central east, the central Ubiñas south of Oviedo, and the Parque Natural de Somiedo in the west. The Cantabrian mountains offer opportunities for activities such as climbing, walking, skiing and caving, and extend some in total, as far as Galicia province to the west of Asturias and Cantabria province to the east. Similar opportunities are available for the interested traveler of Asturias in Caldoveiro Peak.The Asturian coastline is extensive, with hundreds of beaches, coves and natural sea caves. Notable examples include the Playa del Silencio near the fishing village of Cudillero, as well as the many beaches surrounding the summer resort of Llanes, such as the Barro, Ballota and Torimbia. Most of Asturias's beaches are sandy, clean, and bordered by steep cliffs, on top of which it is not unusual to see grazing livestock.
The key features of Asturian geography are its rugged coastal cliffs and the mountainous interior.
The climate of Asturias is heavily marked by the Gulf Stream. Falling within the Cantabrian belt known as Green Spain it has high precipitations all year round. Summers are mild and, on the coast, winters also have relatively benign temperatures, rarely including frost. The cold is especially felt in the mountains, where snow is present from October till May. Both rain and snow are regular weather features of Asturian winters. In coastal or near-coastal areas, daytime high temperatures generally average around – during winter and – in summer.
Pollution and conservation
This part of Spain is one of the best conserved in the entire country, and full of vegetation and wild spaces. It holds two of the most important natural parks in Spain, and is very renowned for the Picos de Europa and Somiedo areas.The Gijón area was marked and singled out as one of the pollution hotspots in Western Europe in a 2015 report from the International Institute for Applied Science Systems, where predictions for 2030 conditions were made. Gijón was marked much higher than any other Spanish metro area, in spite of the much larger populations in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona. This was attributed to heavy industrial activities. Since outdoor air pollution is a major cause of premature death in Europe, the excessive pollution is a major concern for Asturias. The majority of Asturias population live within a range from the port of Gijón, so pollution would be likely to heavily affect the population.
A Spanish government study conducted in 2010 regarding life expectancy in relative communities, Asturias was ranked lowest for male life expectancy with 76.7 years from 2007 readings. However, female life expectancy was 84 years and normal among autonomous communities. However, even the male life expectancy is only just below Western European standards, and exaggerated by the high Spanish life expectancy. Considering that many Asturians live in relatively close proximity to Gijón's heavily industrial areas, these figures still contribute to a position that Gijón is a safe location to live. The numbers for "disability-free" life expectancy has risen significantly both for males and females in the area since 1986, according to the report.
The coal fired electric generating plant, Aboño, completed a Spanish government/EU demand to install equipment to drastically reduce its emissions. Also, the other two major polluters - Arcelor Gijón and Arcelor Avilés - have announced an investment of 100 million euros to do the same. These factories have been a major cause of the area's high airborne pollution.