Description : Astorga (Spanish pronunciation: ) is a municipality and city of Spain located in the central area of the province of León, in the autonomous community of Castilla y León, 43 kilometres (27 mi) southwest of the provincial capital. It is located in the transit between the Páramo Leonés and the mountains of León and acts as the backbone of the shires of Maragatería, La Cepeda and the Ribera del Órbigo. The city is the head of one of the most extensive and oldest dioceses of Spain, whose jurisdiction covers half of the province of León and part of Ourense and Zamora. It is also head of the judicial party number 5 of the province of León. Astorga was sacked by the Visigothic King Theodoric II sometime during time of his rule. On 5 October 456, at the Battle at the Campus Paramus, 19 km (12 mi) from Astorga on the Urbicus (Órbigo), Theoderic II, Eighth Visigoth King from 453 to 466 AD, lead an army into Spain and defeated Rechiar, Suebic King of Galicia from 488 to 12/456. During the waves of invasion of the peninsula by the Germanic tribes, one bishop was the noted Turibio. He documented the conversion of the Suebic King Remismund to Arianism, and worked to restore the churches destroyed by the Visigoths. The bishop was able to travel to Rome, from which he brought back what is believed to be a relic of the True Cross, for which he founded the Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana, where it is still preserved. Because Romans had control of the city, Christianity became very popular in this area during the early church. There is a legend that St. James (Santiago) and St. Paul both preached in Astorga and there is proof that there was a bishopric around the 3rd century. At the very beginning of Leo I's pontificate, in the years 444-447, Turribius, the bishop of Astorga in León, sent to Rome a memorandum warning that Priscillianism was by no means dead, reporting that it numbered even bishops among its supporters, and asking the aid of the Roman See. The distance was insurmountable in the 5th century. Germanic tribes, the Visigoths, took control over Astorga and destroyed the Roman city. However, it prospered with the help of Saints Toribio, Fructuoso, and Valerio.
See on map »