Siege of Oviedo

Oviedo (UK: , US: , Spanish: [oˈβjeðo]; Asturian: Uviéu [uˈβjeʊ]) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city. Oviedo is located approximately 24 km (15 mi) southwest of Gijón and 23 km (14 mi) south of Avilés, both of which lie on the shoreline of the Bay of Biscay. Oviedo's proximity to the ocean of less than 30 kilometres (19 mi) in combination with its elevated position with areas of the city more than 300 metres above sea level causes the city to have a maritime climate, in spite of its not being located on the shoreline itself.

The Archdiocese of Oviedo (Latin: Oveten(sis)) is an Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain. The archdiocese encompasses roughly the current autonomous community of Asturias or Principality of Asturias. Erected in the 9th century, the diocese was elevated to an archdiocese in 1954. The diocesan see is in the city of Oviedo, where the Catedral de San Salvador is located.

Iglesia de San Isidoro (Oviedo) is a church in Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. It was opened in 1587.

The Museum of Fine Arts of Asturias (Spanish: Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias) is a museum in Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. It is situated within three buildings: the Palacio de Velarde, the House of Oviedo-Portal, and the House of Solís-Carbajal. The museum was conceived on 13 June 1844, by Royal Decree, and inaugurated 19 May 1980, from the art collection owned by the former province of Oviedo. It now depends on funding from the Culture Department of Asturias, and the City of Oviedo. An expansion project is underway by the museum's architect, Francisco Beloqui Mangado.

The University of Oviedo (Spanish: Universidad de Oviedo, Asturian: Universidá d'Uviéu) is a public university in Asturias (Spain). It is the only university in the region. It has three campus and research centres, located in Oviedo, Gijón and Mieres.

Capilla de la Balesquida is a church in Asturias, Spain. The church was established in 1232.

The Church of Saint Thyrsus (Spanish: Iglesia de San Tirso; or Iglesia de San Tirso el Real de Oviedo) is a Roman Catholic Asturian Romanesque church situated in Oviedo, in Asturias, northern Spain. The church was established in the 790s. Dedicated to Saint Thyrsus, it was built by Tioda, the royal architect of Alfonso II of Asturias. The Great Fire of Oviedo in 1521 and rebuilding in the 18th century removed most of the original church, except for a three-light window.

Camposagrado Palace is a baroque and Neo-classical palace located in the town of Oviedo, in Asturias, Spain. The building dates back to the eighteenth century and was built for the Marquis de Camposagrado, José Manuel Bernaldo de Quirós.The architecture is an integration of styles and architects. Typically for urban palaces, it is a square building organized around a courtyard, with four façades of masonry walls lined with sandstone blocks and decorated with traditional quoins at the corners. The lower level was begun by Francisco de la Riva Ladrón de Guevara around 1728 and is principally built in the Baroque style. The upper floor began in 1744 by the architect Pedro Antonio Menéndez de Ambás and is distinguished by the Neo-Classical style, articulated with Ionic columns and rusticated blocks at the corners. The building has dual entryways—one from the side of Valdecarzana Palace on San Juan Street and the other from Porlier Square. Both entrances led to massive staircases heading upwards.In 1934, during social upheaval of the Asturian miners' strike of 1934, the building was burned and had to be rehabilitated. The architect Enrique Rodríguez Bustelo completed the repairs and on 26 May 1943 it was declared a historic monument.It presently houses the Regional Court of Asturias.

The Holy chamber of Oviedo (Spanish: Cámara Santa de Oviedo, also known as the chapel of St. Michael) is a Roman Catholic pre-Romanesque church in Oviedo, Spain, built next to pre-romanesque Tower of San Miguel of the city's cathedral. Nowadays, the church occupies the angle between the south arm of the cathedral transept and a side of the cloister. It was built during the 9th century as a palace chapel for King Alfonso II of Asturias and the church of San Salvador of Oviedo. Apart from acting as royal chapel, the Holy Chamber was built to house the jewels and relics of the cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo, a function it continues to have 1200 years later. Some of these jewels were donated by the Kings Alfonso II and Alfonso III, and represent extraordinary gold artifacts of Asturian Pre-Romanesque, brought from Toledo after the fall of the Visigothic kingdom. Consequently, the cathedral of Oviedo was also called Sancta Ovetensis; owing to quantity and quality of relics contained in the Cámara Santa (English: Holy Chamber). The Holy Chamber remains as the only sample of the early medieval complex. It was built as a relics' room to keep the different treasures associated with the Kingdom of Asturias (Cross of the Angels, Victory Cross, Agate box, Arca Santa and Sudarium of Oviedo), brought from Jerusalem to Africa, and after several translations was finally deposited at Oviedo by Alfonso II of Asturias. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in December 1998.

Asturias (, Spanish: [asˈtuɾjas]; Asturian: Asturies [asˈtuɾjes; -ɾjɪs]), officially the Principality of Asturias (Spanish: Principado de Asturias; Asturian: Principáu d'Asturies; Galician–Asturian: Principao d'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 (counties), the autonomous community of Asturias is bordered by Cantabria to the east, by León (Castile and León) to the south, by Lugo (Galicia) to the west, and by the Cantabrian sea to the north. Asturias is situated in 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 moderated seasons, most often averaging in the lower 20s celsius. Heatwaves 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 (see also List of municipalities and comarcas in Asturias).

The General Junta of the Principality of Asturias (in Spanish: Junta General del Principado de Asturias, in Asturian: Xunta Xeneral del Principáu d'Asturies) is the parliament of Asturias, an autonomous community of Spain. Its Statute of Autonomy, the basic organic law of the community, defines it as the supreme institution of representation of the Asturian people. Established in 1982, it has the name of an Asturian political institution that existed from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. The General Junta exercises the legislative power, approves the budgets of the community, and guides and controls the action of the Council of Government, the executive power, whose leader it elects as the "President of the Principality of Asturias". It also exercises all competences conferred or devolved to the autonomous communities in the Constitution of Spain and assumed by the community itself in its Statute of Autonomy and any other relevant law. The General Junta is integrated by 45 members called "deputies" (in Spanish: diputados) for a period of four years unless it is dissolved by the President of the Principality, who then calls for new elections. The General Junta meets at the Regional Palace in Oviedo.

The Kingdom of Asturias (Latin: Asturum Regnum; Asturian: Reinu d'Asturies) was a kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula founded by the Visigothic nobleman Pelagius. It was the first Christian political entity established after the Umayyad conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 718 or 722. That year, Pelagius defeated an Umayyad army at the Battle of Covadonga, in what is usually regarded as the beginning of the Reconquista. The Asturian kings would occasionally make peace with the Muslims, particularly at times when they needed to pursue their other enemies, the Basques and rebels in Galicia. Thus Fruela I (757–68) killed 40,000 Muslims but also defeated the Basques and Galicians, and Silo (774–83) made peace with the Muslims but not with the Galicians. Under King Alfonso II (791–842), the kingdom was firmly established with Alfonso's recognition as king of Asturias by Charlemagne and the Pope. He conquered Galicia and the Basques. During his reign, the holy bones of St James the Great were declared to be found in Galicia, in Compostela (from Latin campus stellae, literally "the field of the star"). Pilgrims from all over Europe opened a way of communication between the isolated Asturias and the Carolingian lands and beyond. Alfonso's policy consisted in depopulating the borders of Bardulia (which would turn into Castile) in order to gain population support north of the mountains. With this growth came a corresponding increase in military forces. The kingdom was now strong enough to sack the Moorish cities of Lisbon, Zamora and Coimbra. However, for centuries to come the focus of these actions was not conquest but pillage and tribute. In the summers of 792, 793 and 794 several Muslim attacks plundered Alava, and the heart of the Asturian kingdom, reaching up to the capital, Oviedo. In one of the retreats, Alfonso inflicted a severe defeat on the Muslims in the swampy area of Lutos, killing 70,000.When Alfonso II died, Ramiro I (842–50) staged a coup against the Count of the Palace Nepotian, who had taken the throne. After a battle on a bridge over the river Narcea, Nepotian was captured in flight, blinded and then forced into monastic life. Early in his reign, in 844, Ramiro was faced with a Viking attack at a place called Farum Brecantium, believed to be present-day Corunna. He gathered an army in Galicia and Asturias and defeated the Vikings, killing many of them and burning their ships. In 859, a second Viking fleet set out for Spain. The Vikings were slaughtered off the coast of Galicia by Count Pedro. The considerable territorial expansion of the Asturian kingdom under Alfonso III (866–910) was largely made possible by the collapse of Umayyad control over many parts of Al-Andalus at this time. Between the years 866 and 881, the western frontier of the kingdom in Galicia was expanded into the northern part of modern-day Portugal. The year 878 saw a Muslim assault on the towns of Astorga and León. The expedition consisted of two detachments, one of which was decisively defeated at Polvoraria on the river Orbigo, with an alleged loss of 13,000 men. In 881, Alfonso took the offensive, leading an army deep into the Lower March, crossing the Tagus River to approach Mérida. Then miles from the city the Asturian army crossed the Guadiana River and defeated the Umayyad army on "Monte Oxifer", allegedly leaving 15,000 Muslim soldiers killed. Returning home, Alfonso devoted himself to building the churches of Oviedo and constructing one or two more palaces for himself. The Kingdom of Asturias transitioned into the Kingdom of León in 924, when Fruela II of Asturias became king with his royal court in León.