Oviedo

Oviedo was the royal seat of the early kingdom of Asturias and remained a religious centre long after the court moved elsewhere. Pilgrims came to honour the relics in the cathedral's Cámara Santa and sometimes went on toward Santiago de Compostela. In 1388 John I of Castile created the Principality of Asturias for his son Henry, the first heir to the throne to bear the title, and Oviedo became its capital. At the same time the Junta General of Asturias emerged as the principality's assembly.

A great fire swept through the city on Christmas Eve 1521, destroying much of the medieval town; the late fifteenth-century Casa de la Rúa was the one civil building to survive. The University of Oviedo, founded by the Inquisitor General Fernando Valdés Salas, opened in 1608. From 1709 the Benedictine essayist Benito Feijoo lived in Oviedo and wrote his works there. On 9 May 1808 the Junta met to organise Asturias's defence against Napoleon's forces.