Page 21 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Northern Spain

INTRODUCING NOR THERN SP AIN  19

A PORTRAIT OF

NORTHERN SPAIN

Spain’s diversity is evident in its northernmost part, the source of many of
the country’s oldest and most fascinating traditions. The peoples of the north
speak three languages – Galician, Basque and Catalan – as well as Spanish.
And instead of sun-browned southern plains there are thickly wooded hills,
facing a misty Atlantic Ocean.
Northern Spain is, above all, extremely The other communities of the north
lush and green, with pockets of took shape after the influx of the Moors
abundance like the winelands of Galicia into Spain in AD 711, when retreating
and La Rioja. Thanks to the steepness of Christians took refuge in the northern
its mountains and their proximity to the mountains. The tiny principalities and
Atlantic, it gets plenty of rain, so much dukedoms formed in the valleys of
of the region is carpeted with woodland Asturias and the Pyrenees were the
or rich pasture. Yet it is sufficiently far cradles of the later states – Castile,
south for the weather to often be Aragón, Catalonia – that eventually
warm and mild. spread south to defeat the great
The north was the only part of Spain Moorish kingdoms of Spain.
not conquered by the Moors in the For centuries the regions west of
Middle Ages, and some of its peoples Navarra were linked by the Camino de
even resisted the Romans. The Basques Santiago, the road to one of Europe’s
are the longest-established people in greatest pilgrimage sites, the shrine of
Europe, having already been in their St James at Santiago de Compostela.
green mountain home for centuries The abundant traffic along the camino
when the Romans encountered them during the Middle Ages en couraged
around 200 BC. The Celtic Galicians are the growth of striking cities with
only relative newcomers by comparison. magnificent Gothic architecture.

View of the village of Roncesvalles surrounded by woodland, in Navarra
The Rosa dos Ventos seen from the Torre de Hercules Roman lighthouse, in A Coruña, Galicia

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