Galicia, the Switzerland of Spain. Annette M. B. Meakin
Читать онлайн.| Название | Galicia, the Switzerland of Spain |
|---|---|
| Автор произведения | Annette M. B. Meakin |
| Жанр | Языкознание |
| Серия | |
| Издательство | Языкознание |
| Год выпуска | 0 |
| isbn | 4064066168674 |
Annette M. B. Meakin
Galicia, the Switzerland of Spain
Published by Good Press, 2021
EAN 4064066168674
Table of Contents
CHAPTER II THE GEOGRAPHY OF GALICIA
CHAPTER III THE FIRST GOLDEN AGE
CHAPTER V THE LANGUAGE OF GALICIA
CHAPTER VI PILGRIMS TO SANTIAGO
CHAPTER VII THE ARCHITECTURE OF GALICIA
CHAPTER VIII THE CATHEDRAL OF SANTIAGO
CHAPTER IX THE PORTICO DE GLORIA
CHAPTER XII THE COLEGIATA DE SAR
CHAPTER XVI SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA
CHAPTER XVII GALICIA’S LIVESTOCK
CHAPTER XXIII MONFORTE AND LUGO
CHAPTER XXIV BETANZOS AND FERROL
CHAPTER XXV THE GREAT MONASTERIES OF GALICIA
CHAPTER XXVI TREES, FRUITS, AND FLOWERS
G A L I C I A
CHAPTER I
ANCIENT GALICIA
Ancient Galicia—Never conquered by the Moors—The cradle of Spanish nobility—A goal for pilgrims—Modern writers on Galicia—A rich literature—National traditions—Martial genius—No Basques—Iberian words—Ligurians in Spain—Barrows and tumuli—Druidical stones—Celtic Spain—Derivation of “Galicia”—Scotch and Irish traditions—Julius Cæsar—Phœnician colonies—The Cassiterides—Plato’s theory—Iron implements—Quintus Fabius—Brutus in Galicia—The theatre of Cæsar’s battles—The Roman Legions—The most ancient of all the Spanish kingdoms
GALICIA is the least known and the least written about of all the little kingdoms that go to the making of Spain. Her boundaries have been greatly reduced since the days when the Romans divided the Peninsula into five provinces and called one of them Galicia. In the fourth and fifth centuries, when the Sueves and the Vandals poured into Spain, they made Galicia their centre, and their kingdom extended into what is now the kingdom of Portugal, while Braga, now a Portuguese town, was for a long time the residential city of their kings. At the end of the seventh century King Witiza resided in Galicia, not as its king, but as the companion of his father in the kingdom of the Goths, whose seat was Toledo; it was as governor of Galicia that he resided at Tuy. In the days of the historian Mariana part of his palace was still to be seen there. His father died in 706, and he then became king of the Goths. The irruption of the Saracens in 713 again changed the aspect of the Peninsula, and the limits of Galicia were contracted; but Spanish geographers to this day call her a reino, or kingdom, and divide her into four little provinces—Coruña, Pontevedra, Orense, and Lugo. Like our Wales, Galicia once had kings of her own, and at a later date the title “king of Galicia” was given to the heir to the Spanish throne, just as that of “Prince of Asturias” is given now. It is an interesting fact that Moorish historians speak of that part of the Peninsula which retained the Christian faith during their occupation as “Galicia,” and of all the rest of the territory as “Spain.” Just as Novgorod proudly boasts of never having been conquered by the Tartars when the rest of Russia was subjected to their sway, so Galicia is proud to remember that she, at least, was never conquered by the Moors.
Galicia may justly be called the cradle of the Spanish nobility, for almost all Spain’s proudest families have their roots in Gallegan soil, their titles having been given to their ancestors as a reward for the heroic resistance they offered to the Moors.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Galicia seems to have been left out of count, and to have gradually sunk into oblivion. Even the Spaniards themselves know very little about her to-day. Yet in the Middle Ages her fame as a goal of pilgrims rivalled that of Palestine, not