Oviedo

(Trip to Northern Spain pt VI)

From Ribadeo, which is right on the edge of Galicia, I passed into Asturias. Asturias is one of those single-province autonomous communities (to explain that confusing phrase, Spain is divided into a number of autonomous communities, kind of like states, but each community is made up of a certain number of provinces. Some have a bunch of provinces, some are just a single province that has the status of a community). Even better, Asturias is officially the Principado de Asturias or the Principality of Asturias. The heir to the throne in Spain always holds the title Prince of Asturias, just like the heir to the British throne is always the Prince of Wales. The current Prince is Felipe, or, if we want to do the translating thing, Philip. (In older English-language sources, names of royalty are usually translated-- so we talk about King Philip, Charles, etc, or, even nowadays, Pope John Paul or Benedict. In Spanish this custom is still in vigor, so they talk about Isabel II of the United Kingdom, her son Príncipe Carlos de Gales, and the royal wedding of Guillermo y Catalina, los duques de Cambridge. Sometimes you'll even see references to people like Carlos Marx or Carlos Dickens. And I know I've seen a Galician-language source refer to the current king as Xoan Carlos I.)

After that lengthy aside, let's get back to the city at hand, Oviedo. It's the capital of Asturias, and is a really attractive city, a place you can just walk around and enjoy.

I find the big cathedral interesting-- according to what I've read, it's classified as Gothic, but somehow it doesn't seem that Gothic, it seems more primitive and blocky (hard as this may be to believe, I mean that in a totally non-pejorative way!!).

Of course I had to take a picture of the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana, the Academy of the Asturian language! Yep, just like any self-respecting region of Spain, Asturias has its own language. I'm not totally clear on how widespread it is; it doesn't have official status like Galician, Catalan and Basque do, but nonetheless I saw it on some municipal signs. The name of Oviedo in the Asturian language is Uviéu.

The Christmas lights you see above are in the shape of the Cruz de los Ángeles or Cross of the Angels, which is a gold-plated and bejeweled cross you can see in the Cathedral, and which is the symbol of Oviedo. The other famous golden-and-jewels cross in the cathedral is called the Cruz de la Victoria, and, according to tradition, underneath all the gold is an old wooden cross that King Pelayo brandished at the battle of Covadonga (that symbolic first victory of the Reconquista). Spanish cities love to hang their streets with big lights like this, and these ones in Oviedo are the nicest and most tasteful I've seen... Príncipe Street in Vigo has some brilliant blue-and-white ones that are really verging on tacky.