Astorga

Astorga (Estorga, in León de la Maragatería) is a municipality and Spanish city in the province of León, in the autonomous community of Castilla y León. It is located in the transit between the Páramo Leonés and the mountains of León, and acts as the backbone of the regions of Maragatería, La Cepeda and Ribera del Órbigo. The city is the head of one of the largest and oldest dioceses in Spain, whose jurisdiction covers half of the province of León and part of those of Orense and Zamora. In addition, it is the head of judicial district number 5 of the province of León.

Created as a Roman military camp for Legio X Gemina at the end of the I century a. C., shortly after it became a civil settlement and was the capital of the Asturicense Convent. It developed as an important communications hub in the northwest of the peninsula and enjoyed a certain prosperity in the first two centuries AD, thanks to gold mining, being defined by Pliny the Elder as magnificent vrbs. the middle years of the III century it must have been established as an episcopal see, with Basilides as its first bishop. It was part of the kingdom of the Swabians after the barbarian invasions and in 714 it was taken by the Muslim troops of Táriq, although it would be reconquered by the Asturian monarchy in the middle of the same century. At the end of the century, X again suffered Muslim harassment on three occasions at the hands of Almanzor.

Since the XI century, and thanks to the impulse given by the Camino de Santiago, the city experienced a progressive development, in which the Church played a leading role. In 1465 Enrique IV of Castilla granted Álvaro Pérez Osorio, Count of Trastámara, Lord of Villalobos and Castroverde, the title of Marquis of Astorga, for which the city passed from a free state to a feudatory condition. At the beginning of the century XIX the city suffered the consequences of the French occupation and was one of the first cities to rise up against the French, with the mutiny of peasants and laborers on May 2, 1808. The French army entered the city on December 31 of the same year and during the following years the square changed hands on several occasions until the French finally capitulated on August 17, 1812.

Between the mid-19th century and the early XX there was an important industrial development, in which the arrival of the railway and the rise of the chocolate industry played a fundamental role. This continues to be active along with other branches of the food industry, such as confectionery and the meat industry, although the economic activity of the municipality is based fundamentally on the service sector, with administration, commerce and cultural tourism as the most prominent sectors. The latter is mainly based on its historical-artistic heritage, in which it is worth noting the cathedral, the Episcopal Palace, the town hall and the Roman hermitage, all of them declared an Asset of Cultural Interest, in addition to being a place of passage for the Camino de Santiago and one of the headwaters of the Vía de la Plata.

The most representative celebrations are carnival —the first weekend after Ash Wednesday—, Holy Week —declared of National Tourist Interest—, the Astures and Romans festival —declared of Regional Tourist Interest— and, discontinuously, the Zuiza procession in honor of the Clavijo banner and the procession of the Virgin of Castrotierra, brought in years of drought from her sanctuary located 17 kilometers from the city.

In 2015, in the approval by Unesco of the extension of the Camino de Santiago in Spain to «Caminos de Santiago de Compostela: French Camino and Caminos del Norte de España», Spain sent as documentation a «Retrospective Inventory - Associated Elements » (Retrospective Inventory - Associated Components) in which between numbers 1708 and 1772 there is Astorga with a set of associated elements.

Toponymy

The place name of Astorga is a natural and popular evolution of the old place name, Asturica. There are several theories about the origin and meaning of the latter: for some, such as the chronicler Gil González Dávila, it comes from the name Astyr or Astur bore, Memnon's squire who came from the east, while for others it derives from Astiria, Astirica or Asturia., name by which it was still known during the conquests of Munuza.

Pedro Junco, relying on other texts such as the Dictionary of Covarrubias, wrote in 1635 that the name derived from Astu and Orgia, two words that together would form Astorgia, meaning "city to celebrate the cult of the gods”, specifically of Bacchus, and that Latinized would become Asturica; likewise, he affirmed that before being called Asturica it was called Rhoma, synonymous with strong in Greek.

The city is cited as Astorica in documents from 878, as Osturga and Austurga in the Codex Calixtinus, and as Astur, Asturius and Asturia throughout the Middle Ages. In the XIX, Víctor Gebhardt wrote in his General History of Spain that Astorga, in earlier times, had the name of Asturica Amak. In Antonio de Nebrija's dictionary, edition of 1734, it is called Asturia and Asturica: «Asturia, region and city close to Portugal» and «Asturica Augusta, city of Tarragona Spain, commonly called Rome».

In any case, Asturica was called the ancient capital of the 22 Asturian tribes, which later received, from the hands of Emperor César Augusto, the last name of Augusta, at the same time that he elevated the place to the capital of a legal convent.

Physical geography

Fragment of leaf 193 of the National Topographic Map of Spain 2001 in which part of Astorga is represented

Mount Teleno seen from Astorga

Plaque indicator of the Astorga altitude on one of the walls of the cathedral

View of the Upper Horn (1114 m.)

Air view of the city

Location

The municipality of Astorga, which covers an area of 46.78 km², is located to the southwest of the central zone of the province of León, in the transition zone between the Páramo Leonés plain and the mountains of León, which makes Astorga a strategic nucleus of communications, already attested since ancient times to be the crossroads between the Camino de Santiago and the Vía de la Plata, and a natural gateway to Galicia. Its territory is divided between the traditional regions of Tierra de Astorga and Maragatería and is represented on sheets MTN50 (scale 1:50,000) 192 and 193 of the National Topographic Map.

Northwest: Brazuelo	North: Brazuelo and Villaobispo de Otero	Northeast: San Justo de la Vega
West: Brazuelo		This: San Justo de la Vega
Southwest Santa Colomba de Somoza	South: Val de San Lorenzo y Santiago Millas	Sureste: San Justo de la Vega
Interactive map — Astorga and its municipality

Orography

Astorga is located in the northwestern area of the Duero basin and generally presents a smooth relief, but with two differentiated areas: on the one hand, a series of ESE-WN orientation mountain ranges, with materials from the Lower Paleozoic, and on the other the plain of the Tuerto river, of tertiary materials covered later during the Quaternary. filled with Miocene sediments, while in the eastern zone alluvial plains and different levels of terraces dominate.

The average altitude of the municipality ranges from 830 m s. no. m. of the vegas that surround the city and the more than 1000 meters of the western end of the term. Sierro(969 m s. n. m.), La Cuesta (996 m s. n. m.) and, especially, the Horn, geodesic vertex located at 1114 m s. no. m. The city itself is located on a promontory, 870 m s. no. m., on which its historic center sits, whose profile is reminiscent of a spur, becoming smoother at its western end.

Panoramic view, with the mountains of León to the background, from the city wall

Hydrography

The river Jerga at its pass through Astorga

The entire municipality falls within the Duero river basin; As in a good part of the province, its river courses are characterized by the irregularity of its flow, with low water levels in summer and floods in autumn and winter due to rain and melting snow.

The fertile plain of the Tuerto river, a tributary of the Órbigo river, is the most important in the municipal area and extends through the eastern part of it. However, the course with the longest route through the municipality is the Jerga river, which rises in Peña del Gato, next to the port of Foncebadón, and after passing through Castrillo de los Polvazares, Murias de Rechivaldo, Astorga and Celada de la Vega, It pours its waters into the Tuerto River a few kilometers from Astorga. Other minor channels are the different streams that flow into both rivers, such as the Moldera, the Val Seco or the Fontanal.

Climate

The climate in the municipality is classified as continental Mediterranean, with cold winters with frequent frosts, and hot and dry summers. The annual thermal oscillation is around 15 °C while the daily one sometimes exceeds 20 °C. Rainfall is distributed irregularly throughout the year, with a scarcity in summer, concentrating at the end of autumn, in the winter months and at the beginning of spring. The altitude above sea level, its high The situation regarding the environment and its exposure to the winds favor a generally cool environment most of the year, being especially unpleasant in winter and spring.

According to the Köppen climate classification, Astorga falls into the Csb variant, that is, a Mediterranean climate with mild summers, with the average of the warmest month not exceeding 22 °C, but exceeding 10 °C for five or more months. It is a transitional climate between the Mediterranean (Csa) and the oceanic (Cfb). The city has a meteorological station located in the area of El Sierro, dependent on the State Meteorological Agency.

Average climatic parameters of Astorga
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Average temperature (°C)	2.9	4.2	6.8	8.4	12.0	16.6	20.2	19.9	16.5	11.7	6.4	3.8	10.8
Total precipitation (mm)	46.2	38.5	29.1	32.1	42.6	32.9	19.6	18.1	29.5	41.6	41.5	40.7	412.4
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment. Precipitation and temperature data (1961-2001)

Nature

Geology

Geologically, Astorga is located in the Asturoccidental-Leonesa Zone, southwest of the Navia-Alto Sil Domain. At the lithological level, the most outstanding materials found in the municipality are, on the one hand, natural aggregates from the Quaternary and Miocene clays —traditionally used for making ceramics, both industrially and artisanally—, and on the other quartzites, Paleozoic sandstones and slates. On the alluvial deposits of the Miocene there are concentrations of gold, of a secondary nature and low yields, both in ancient and modern fluvial terraces. Regarding the stratigraphy, to the west of the municipality there are levels of the Los Cabos Series of the Upper Cambrian and Lower Ordovician and from the Luarca Slates, from the Middle Ordovician; the Paleozoic outcrops are flanked by Miocene levels on which Quaternary sediments lie in large areas and completely cover the fluvial basins of the Jerga and Tuerto rivers.

Flora

The municipality of Astorga is located in the supra-Mediterranean bioclimatic zone, so its climax vegetation is made up of marcescent and coniferous species. Among them are the rebollos, which grow in the coolest and most humid areas of the west of the municipality, on Quaternary deposits and predominantly siliceous soils, as well as repopulated pine forests, located mainly in the surroundings of Alto del Cuerno, composed of species such as Scots pine. Holm oak is also present, generally scattered, but forming a homogeneous unit in the forest between Castrillo de los Polvazares and Murias de Rechivaldo, very degraded, in a carved state and with stunted feet; this is due to the traditional use of holm oak for charcoal and firewood, something that also happens in the rest of the province. In its lower stratum there are species such as genistas, lavenders or hare's feet. In areas where the tree layer is not present, mainly sunny slopes, due to both the low quality of the soil and the scarcity of water, rosemary, broom or rockrose thickets appear. In the plain of the Tuerto river, apart from the poplar plantations, you can find poplars, willows or alders. The rest of the municipal territory corresponds to wastelands and farmland.

Panoramic view of the city from the northwest

Wildlife

Moruna Fountain, in the synagogue garden

Encalada Source

Partial view of the Eragudina Park

The park of the Melgar, with the monumental ensemble to the background

The municipality has a rich and varied fauna due to its transition situation between the Mediterranean world and the Eurosiberian world. Thus, in terms of ichthids, the waters of Astorga support only two species, the common barbel and the vogue of the Duero, which are accompanied by mammals such as otter. Among the different species of amphibians and reptiles, there are the common toad, the marbled newt, the ocellated lizard or the Seoane viper and bastard snake. In the flat areas of the municipality there are birds such as the kestrel or the common hawk and small mammals such as the rabbit or the Iberian hare. In the surroundings of the population centers, the white stork, the swallow, the common swift, the wood pigeon, different species of tits, the jackdaw or birds of prey such as the red kite are common. Finally, in the areas of grasslands or birds such as the red partridge and mammals such as the roe deer, the weasel, the fox, the wild boar and, occasionally, the wolf are present.

History

Roman military operations carried out during the Cantabrian wars Campaign of 25 BC. Campaign of 26 BC. Julius Caesar Campaign from 61 B.C. Campaign of the Tenth June Brutus of 137 a. C.

The discovery of the sarcophagus of San Justo de la Vega attests to the presence of a Christian community among the centuries III and IV

Old Age

The history of the city dates back, in theory, to pre-Roman times, since the Greco-Egyptian geographer Ptolemy already referred to Asturica as the Asturian city and capital of the Amacs. This has led different researchers such as Manuel Gómez-Moreno or José María Luengo to give it an indigenous origin. However, the archaeological excavations that have been carried out in the urban area have not provided any material that can corroborate such origins. For this reason, it cannot be affirmed, scientifically, that there was a pre-Roman settlement, despite the existence of several forts from the Iron Age in the surroundings of Astorga, such as La Mesa in Castrillo de los Polvazares.

Its foundation, based on data obtained thanks to archaeology, is related to the presence of a detachment of the Legio X Gemina as a result of the Cantabrian wars. Said presence is attested by the discovery of two trenches or ditches as a defensive system, as well as by the existence of several foundation ditches for possible wooden structures. 29 a.m. C. and 19 a. C., the camp was raised, which after the pacification of the territory became a civil settlement within the province of Tarragona. This conversion must have occurred at the beginning of the I century, since in the year 27 the hospitality pact with the Zoelas shows that the Rome's relations with the natives were already stabilized.

About the transition between the governments of Claudio and Vespasiano, the city became the capital of the Conventus Iuridicus Asturum and was the main recipient of gold extracted from mines such as Las Médulas. This boom made Pliny the Elder, at that time procurator of Hispania Citerior, define the city, in his work Naturalis Historia, as vrbs magnifica. With the territorial reorganization that occurred in the III century, the city became part of the province of Gallaecia, with its capital in Bracara Augusta (Braga). When the mining operations ended in the time of Diocletian, the decline of the city began.

In the middle years of the III century, it must have been established as an episcopal see, with Basilides as its first bishop, in around 249. However, the establishment of Christianity was threatened by barbarian invasions and, religiously, by the expansion of Priscillian and Manichean doctrines, against which Hydatius and Saint Toribius later fought.

Middle Ages

In the second half of the centuryIXOrdoño I ordered the repopulation and reconstruction of the city

In 1465, Enrique IV de Castilla granted Alvaro Pérez Osorio the title of Marquis de Astorga

After the barbarian invasions, the Suevi settled in the territory of ancient Gallaecia around 410 and the city became part of their kingdom. The confrontation between the Swabians and the Visigoths caused Astorga to suffer two lootings by the latter, the first by Theodoric II in 456 and the second by Leovigildo in 569. Because of all this, Astorga lost its status as convent capital legal system, together with the disappearance of the Roman political and administrative system, and the leading role fell, from that moment, on the city of León. In 714, as a result of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Astorga was attacked and destroyed by Táriq on his northward march. After the rise of the kingdom of Asturias in the middle of the century VIII, the monarch Alfonso I of Asturias advanced south and reconquered the city of Astorga for the Christians, among others. Ordoño I of Asturias, who ascended the throne in 850, commissioned Count Gatón to repopulate and rebuild the city.

Years later, the five sons of Alfonso III of Asturias revolted against him and the monarch divided the crown among them after abdicating; Thus, García I de León, to whom León corresponded, located his court in Astorga for four years, until his death in 914. After his death, Ordoño II de León moved the capital to León, circumstances that gave rise to the birth of the Kingdom of Leon In 988 the capital suffered sacking by Almanzor which caused, according to Gebhardt, the temporary transfer of the court to Astorga. The latter also suffered, in 988, 994 and 996, the siege and looting by Almanzor's troops.

In 1034, Sancho Garcés III of Pamplona took the city and the rest of León due to disagreements with Bermudo III of León. In 1073 tenure was established as a form of government. This was occupied, in the early years of the XII century, by Teresa, Countess of Portugal, taking advantage of the disputes between her sister Urraca I of León and Alfonso I of Aragon, and in 1143 it became the domain of her son, Alfonso I of Portugal.

During the government of Ferdinand III of Castile, the mode of territorial administration changed and thus possessions became lordships. In the specific case of Astorga, this occurred around 1277, but in 1345 Alfonso XI of Castilla decided that the government of the city would be in the hands of a corregidor and several aldermen.

From 1367 until the end of the century, the city suffered a crisis due to the plague, the fights between Pedro I of Castile and Enrique II of Castile, and the poor economic situation. At this time, the Astorgan merchants maintained relations and traffic with various towns in Galicia, which could be the origin of the future muleteering.

On July 16, 1465, through a privilege given in Toro, Enrique IV of Castilla granted Álvar Pérez de Osorio, Count of Trastámara, Lord of Villalobos and Castroverde, the title of Marquis of Astorga, therefore that the city passed from a free state to a feudatory status. The power of the marquisate exerted a great influence on the government of the city and came to affect those areas that the Cathedral Chapter had under its power.

Modern Age

The 16th century was led, in its early years, by the War of the Communards (1520-1521); Astorga belonged to the royalist side, since the marquis was a follower of the monarch Carlos I. It was a period in which numerous brotherhoods were created that helped the poor and pilgrims through hospitals, a fact that was accentuated thanks to the passage of the Camino from Santiago through the city. Of all this tradition of reception, the San Juan Bautista and the Cinco Llagas remain in the city. Religious influence was always present, not only due to ecclesiastical moral dominance, but also because the Cabildo owned extensive rural properties and urban.

The arrival of the printing press, in 1545 by the hand of Agustín de Paz, favored written production, which at that time was reduced almost exclusively to missals and ecclesiastical works, such as the Thesaurus Angelorum by Francis of Evia. In addition, it marked the beginning of a tradition of printers, such as Antonio de la Calzada, whose peak came at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the XX, when more printing presses operated in Astorga than in the provincial capital itself, among which were those of Antonio Gullón, Juan Alonso, Porfirio López, Nicesio Fidalgo, González Revillo and Ortiz.

During the XVIII century the city reached a certain prosperity and in its daily life games of cane, bullfights were common bullfighting in the Plaza Mayor, the bowling game —regulated in 1601—, theatrical performances and sacramental functions. Between the XVIII centuries and XIX the territory of Astorga was affected by the division of the province into cantons and jurisdictions, which was later modified during the War of Independence.

Contemporary Age

Manuel García Prieto was president of the government on several occasions between 1912 and 1922

At the beginning of the 19th century, the city's previous growth came to a halt due to both epidemics and the aftermath of the French occupation. Thus, Astorga was one of the first cities to rise up against the French, with the mutiny of peasants and day laborers on May 2, 1808, and the following month the Armament and Defense Board was formed. The French army entered the city on December 31, 1808 and during the following years the square changed hands on several occasions, with heroic deeds such as the defense made by General José María de Santocildes, until finally, and thanks to a strategy prepared by Generals Castaños and Wellington, the French capitulated on August 17, 1812. Of everything that happened in those years, General Santocildes left written the Historical summary of the attacks, siege and surrender of Astorga.

After Fernando VII was restored to the throne, he abolished the Constitution of 1812 and returned to absolutism, something that was well received by the ecclesiastical, noble and bourgeois sectors of the city; the influence of the Bishopric and Cabildo continued throughout the XIX and XX. Regarding local administration, during the brief government of José I Bonaparte a new organization of the territory was proposed, with Astorga at the head of one of the departments, the Department of Esla. The idea did not go ahead and in 1820, with the beginning of the Liberal Triennium, a new division was proposed, with Astorga as one of the eleven parties of the province, but in 1823 it was annulled. In 1833, with the new territorial reorganization, the city and the Maragatería were attached to the province of León.

General view of Astorga towards the beginning of the centuryXX.

During the reign of Isabel II, and after the Constitution of 1845, Astorga was represented by the progressive Santiago Alonso Cordero. In the following decades, other representatives in Cortes were Pío Gullón Iglesias, who was part of the political alternative to Cánovas del Castillo, and Manuel García Prieto, who held the presidency of the government on several occasions, the last of which, in 1922, was prior to the military coup of Miguel Primo de Rivera.

With the outbreak of the civil war on July 18, 1936, after the passage to Asturias of the columns of miners who had initially advanced towards the south, on July 20 the Civil Guard and the military took control of the control of the city, which remained —like most of the province— in rebel territory. Some time later, the Transition and the arrival of democracy gave a new impetus to the development of the city with a greater diversification of its economic activities thanks to the development of tourism, the increase in road transport and its revitalization as a regional center.

Religion

Near Mount Teleno a plaque was found with the inscription Marti Tileno, an indigenous god, lord of the mountain, who the Romans assimilated Mars

Religious influence has always been present in the historical evolution of the city. There is no known mention of indigenous deities in the Astorgan territory and they do not appear in the city itself, due to their Roman camp origin, but the presence of the god Caraedudi can be verified in the town of Cuevas —next to Celada de la Vega—, as well as the existence of a plaque dedicated to Marti Tileno, which was found in Quintana del Marco.

Paganism

Mercury is one of the gods that received worship in Astorga

Roman and Greek gods

With the installation of the Roman camp, both the Roman and Greek gods were welcomed on a religious level; Thus, the following are known about the cult in the city:

• Mars, since he was the god of war who helped the camp. In Astorga he was also known as Gradivo—the god who also grows the harvest—and as Sagato, in allusion to the sagum or campaign layer used by soldiers.
• Mercury, god of commerce and ways. In Astorga there was only one representation of his, on a secondary road that goes from this city to the gold mines of Las Médulas.
• I blame the Emperor and worship the Empress. It is natural for these cults to exist, since it was the capital of the Juridical Convent, in which a large number of officials lived.
• Iulia Domna, who is considered and respected as the mother of the emperor, mother of the Senate, camp and homeland. This cult was consummated through the goddess Minerva and Juno.
• Proserpina, daughter of Ceres, known in Astorga with the title of Invicta.
• Apollo, the emperor's protective god; in Astorga he is related to Granno, a Celtic god whose name means "granate", "brillant like the grain" or "glorious as the sun." This god had a sanctuary in Tréveris.

Representations of the god Aesculapius and his son Telesphoros, related to medicine and healing, have also been found.

Eastern gods

As a consequence of its status as the capital of a legal convent and place where the highest officials of the imperial administration lived, they appeared at the end of the century II and early III dedications or consecrations to the oriental gods. These were introduced in Rome from the Severus, under the influence of high imperial officials from the East, such as Ioul or Silvanos Melanion, who brought with them an imported religion with their gods; sometimes the dedication inscription is written in the Greek language.

• Isis, which is shown with the Greek appeal of Myronimo, a thousand names, in reference to its attributes of land protector, food producer, patron of births and women's health.
• Mitra, god of the Persian Sun, absorbed by the Roman Empire. He found an inscription in Astorga that said Invicto Deo and another one with Soli Invictoboth allusion to this god.
• Serapis, Egyptian god, appears in some cases forming a couple with Isis. It is the god of health, to whom healing powers are attributed and to which amulets and exvotes were dedicated.

Christianity and episcopal seat

Santa Marta Church, one of the oldest advocations in the city

Until the advent of Christianity, the religion had been polytheistic. With Christianity, it passed to monotheism and the construction of churches dedicated to saints, who were highly revered at the time, such as Saint Martin, Saint Acisclo, Saint Christopher or Saint Martha.

There is evidence that the Council of Elvira, which was held between 295 and 314 and in which 37 bishops from the Peninsula participated, was attended by Decencio, Bishop of León, which at that time formed an episcopal seat in union with Astorga, a one of the oldest in Christian Hispania. After the Edict of Milan in 313, it was considered that the city of León was highly influenced by the Mithraic doctrine, popular among soldiers, due to its character as a military place, and the headquarters passed to be located exclusively in Astorga. This had lost all political influence at that time because the Emperor Diocletian had made a new division of provinces and Astorga had ceased to be the capital of the Legal Convent; the transfer of the diocese favored the city, which for this reason continued to maintain its distinction, although this time in the religious field.

The news and references that are preserved in different documents provide knowledge about the existence of the successive bishops of the diocese of Astorga from 380, when Symposium attended the first council of Zaragoza. It is known of the presence of the Astorgan bishops in the different councils of Toledo, the first of which Dictino attended. One of the topics dealt with in this council was that of rural churches, their maintenance and worship; many of these churches survived thanks to their conversion into medieval hermitages and sanctuaries of the diocese, as was the case with the hermitage of the Virgen de Castrotierra, which also has its enclave in an old Iron Age settlement.

Conversion of Recaredo to Christianity

Apart from the documentation of the aforementioned councils, there is the Chronicle of Hydatius to find out about the existence of Astorgan bishops throughout the century V. During the episcopate of Bishop Santo Toribio, from 440 to 480, the invasion of the Suevi, Vandals and Alans took place and the attacks of the Visigoths with the consequent destruction of Astorgan churches. Also at this time and during the power of Bishop Toribio arose in Astorga the Manichaean heresy —a subject dealt with in the Asturicense Council of 456 during the mandate of said bishop— and later, around 585, Arianism spread until the conversion of Recaredo to Christianity in 589, in the III Council of Toledo, when Thalasio was Bishop of Astorga. In the successive councils of Toledo there was always a representation of the Astorgan bishopric, until the XVI Council in 693.

In the Middle Ages there was a restructuring of the diocese. During the repopulation period, Christian life was activated and a series of churches and monasteries appeared within the city, among which were San Cristóbal, San Julián and Santa Basilisa, San Acisclo, San Salvador, Santo Tomé, San Martín., San Isidoro and San Pedro. Outside the city the monastery of San Dictino was founded. In the 11th century the cathedral of Santa María, several churches and the hospital of San Juan Bautista were built, and, outside of the city, more churches, the monastery of Santa Clara and the hospital of Santo Tomás Cantuariense -or Canterbury-.

The following is a list of bishops of the diocese of Astorga who attended the different councils in Hispania, all confirmed by the documents of the councils themselves:

• Polibio came to the first council of Braga in 561.
• Talasio came to the Third Council of Toledo in 589.
• Concordio al IV Council of Toledo in 633.
• Playing the Sixth Council of Toledo in 638.
• The priest Paul representing the Candidate bishop to the Seventh Council of Toledo in 646.
• Candidate Bishop to the 8th Council of Toledo in 653.
• Elpidio al X Council of Toledo in 656.
• Isidore to the Third Council of Braga.
• Abbot Leopardo, representative of Bishop Aurelio to the 13th Council of Toledo in 683.
• Aurelio al XV Council of Toledo in 688.
• Aurelio al XVI Council of Toledo in 693.

The following news about the diocese and its bishops refer to the times of repopulation of the city and the recreation of the bishopric and the dioceses during the reconquest. Since 1954 the diocese of Astorga is dependent on the Archdiocese of Oviedo.

Human Geography

Population growth has been zero in recent years. In the image, new building blocks

Demographics

According to the INE's 2019 municipal register, the municipality of Astorga had 10,867 inhabitants, of whom 5,113 were men and 5,754 were women, making it the fifth largest municipality in the province by number of inhabitants. Regarding their distribution, 10,475 lived in Astorga, 101 in Castrillo de los Polvazares, 111 in Murias de Rechivaldo, 50 in Santa Catalina de Somoza and 130 in Valdeviejas. The city, unlike others such as León and Ponferrada, did not know how to attract to itself the population of the regions that gravitate to it and grew slowly during the century XX, reaching its historical maximum in 1981, since the data for 1940 is influenced by the presence in the city of soldiers and inmates from the Civil War.

Since the 1980s, the city has been registering a slight, but continuous decline in population as a result of demographic aging, the decreasing number of births and emigration to more dynamic nuclei. As a result, in 2011 Astorga ranked 25th among the 100 municipalities in Spain with the highest average age, in which case it was 46.63 years compared to the state average of 17.34.

Population pyramid

The 2019 population pyramid data can be summarized as follows:

• The population under 20 is 16.04 % of the total.
• The figure between 20-40 years is 19.39 %.
• The figure between 40-60 years is 30.36 %.
• Over 60 years is 34.21 %.

Population developments

Astorga demographic evolution figure between 1842 and 2022

Rule population (1842-1991, except 1857 and 1860 which is a de facto population) or resident population (2001-2021) according to the Population Censuses since 1842. Between the 1981 Census and the previous one grows the term of the municipality because it incorporates Castrillo de los Polvazares.Population according to the municipal register of 2022 of the INE.

Foreign population

The foreign population registered in 2019 totaled 411 inhabitants, the most numerous nationalities being Moroccan (178 inhabitants), Bulgarian (47), Portuguese (36), Romanian (28), Chinese (19), Paraguayan and Bolivian (11).

Population distribution

The population entities that make up the municipality of Astorga are the following:

Population Nucles of Astorga

Population entity	Coordinates	Pob. (2020)	Map
Astorga	42°27′32′′N 6°03′48′′ / 42.45889, -6.06333	10 360	Astorga Castrillo delos Polvazares Murias deRechivaldo Santa Catalinade Somoza Valdeviejas Castro de La Mesa High of the Horn Pol. Ind.
Castrillo de los Polvazares	42°27′54′N 6°07′43′O / 42.46500, -6.12861	97
Murias de Rechivaldo	42°27′37′N 6°06′15′O / 42.46028, -6.10417	106
Saint Catherine of Somoza	42°27′16′N 6°09′31′′O / 42.45444, -6.15861	50
Valdeviejas	42°27′41′N 6°04′44′′ / 42.46139, -6.07889	128
Total		10 741
Source: INE, 2020

Urbanism

The first water channeling system was built in Roman times

The ancient city

The urban planning of Astorga has historically been conditioned by the orography of the land, with the settlement since ancient times on top of a natural breakwater. After the end of the Cantabrian wars and the conversion of the military camp into an urban nucleus, the city enjoyed a period of growth thanks to the development of mining activity, whose peak occurred between the centuries I and III. This led to it being the seat of the concillium (meeting of delegates of the indigenous tribes), of the imperial cult and of the Asturicense Convent. The city extended in a space of 26 hectares limited by a wall of more than two kilometers in length. The shape of the enclosure was not rectangular due to a narrowing of the jetty in its southern corner, so in the latter the layout adopted a triangular shape and it was where the forum was located; public buildings were erected, streets were paved—some with porticoes—and a sewerage network was built as well as rich domestic architecture. To all this, around the III century, its role as episcopal seat was added, something that marked the life of the city in the later centuries.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, Astorga, like many other urban centers, underwent a period of decline that lasted until the High Middle Ages, at which time its recovery began. At that time, the urban nucleus —still enclosed behind its walls— had houses covered with straw and tiles on the old Roman layout.

During the medieval period numerous religious buildings were built. In the image, the ancient church of San Julián

The medieval city

In the IX century, the repopulation policy of Ordoño I caused an increase in population for several decades; New neighborhoods arose and land close to the city was cleared. During the 12th and 13th centuries , the new churches were replacing the old early medieval monasteries, which were beginning to disappear. Two determining factors for the city in the medieval period were, on the one hand, the contribution of the Jewish population, which built a synagogue, a cistern and a cemetery, and, on the other, the development of the Camino de Santiago, which favored the hospital construction. The urban aspect was that of contiguous buildings between alleys, lots, orchards and religious sites; The houses were made up, in the middle of the XII century, of a farmyard, a winery, a cellar, a bread bin, a dovecote and an orchard.

The construction of religious buildings continued during the following centuries; Thus, up to eight churches from the XV century were counted, of which several later disappeared, such as those of San Dictino or San Feliz. Something similar happened with the monasteries and, in addition to the oldest, San Martín and San Francisco disappeared. On the other hand, several chapels paid for by guilds were erected, such as San Esteban, San Adrián, San Felipe Neri or San Pedro, and numerous hospitals due to the development of the Jacobean way. In addition, since 1471 the construction of the new cathedral began.

The modern city

At the end of the XVII century, Manuel de la Lastra laid out the space of the Plaza Mayor and built the City Hall building, where the sessions of the Council began to be held, which until then were resolved in the atrium of the church of San Bartolomé, as was common in the Leonese councils. In the century XVIII the city was made up of four parishes —San Bartolomé, San Miguel, San Julián and Santa Marta— and outside the wall were the suburbs of San Andrés, Puerta de Rey and Rectivía. Communications with other parts of the peninsula were limited to highways, in different states of conservation, and various authors, such as Antonio Ponz and Alexandre de Laborde, lamented between 1787 and 1807 the state of its streets, their irregularity and poor cleanliness..

View of Ponferrada Avenue, one of the main roads of the contemporary city

Contemporary city

After the end of the War of Independence, whose consequences it suffered directly, Astorga began its recovery thanks to commercial and industrial activity, especially with the development of the chocolate industry. In the last years of the century, the city began its expansion, until then little, outside the walled enclosure: on February 19, 1866, the railway arrived with the start-up of the León-Astorga section of the León-La Coruña line, and On July 1, 1898, the Plasencia-Astorga line was opened. This double connection by rail caused the growth of the neighborhoods of San Andrés and Puerta de Rey, while the junction between the Madrid-La Coruña highway and that of León favored the rest of the city. This development was accompanied by the inauguration of the water supply in 1889 —previously there was another project, between 1782-1787, called “Viaje de Aguas”— which ended with the need to go to the Fuente Encalada spring, and the installation in 1897 of electric lighting.

Already in the XX century, specifically in 1924, the Santocildes military barracks was inaugurated. In the second quarter of the century the urban area grew to the north and west, but the civil war slowed down this development. Examples of growth over the following decades are the areas of Santa Clara, Manjarín, Candelas, Cuatro Caminos or the Pandorado highway. In 1996, two green spaces, until then scarce in the urban area, were inaugurated with the transformation of La Eragudina into a garden and the conversion of El Melgar into a recreation area.

Since 1985, there has been an Integral Plan for the Protection of Buildings declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), another for the defense of facades and a third for the recovery of singular elements. Thanks to them, spaces such as the Cistern, Plaza de la Culebra or Plaza Romana have been rehabilitated, and the pedestrianization of the so-called Monumental Axis has been carried out, between Puerta Sol and Eduardo de Castro square.

Parks and gardens

The city has several green areas among which, due to its age, stands out the garden of the Synagogue, which in the last decades of the century XX the parks of La Eragudina, El Melgar and El Mayuelo have joined.

The garden of the Synagogue, previously called San Francisco, Alfonso XIII and the Generalissimo, is the oldest park in the city, created in 1835. The space it occupies was part of the Jewish quarter and it was located its synagogue, hence its name. Three years after the birth of the project, the filling of the area, which had a significant unevenness, was completed. At the beginning of 1840 the works were finished and the garden, one of the first in Spain of a romantic type, according to Roberto Alonso, featured a rockery fountain, hedges and walkways, to which a rose garden was later added., begins what was the walkway of the wall, which over time ended up being transformed into the main promenade of the city.

The Mayuelo park, halfway between the urban center and the Sierra del Monte, is located in an area of meadows where there were several springs, some of which were used for consumption or for washing clothes. In the mid-1970s, a fountain was built over one of the springs, games were installed for children and some trees were planted. Finally, in 1993, the City Council carried out a project for the park's more than 7,000 m², which included a central promenade lined with trees, children's play areas and recreation areas. The fountain was also remodeled, carried out by the Escuela Taller.

The field of La Eragudina, a former recreational space for the Marquises of Astorga next to the Jerga riverbed, was transformed into a garden in 1996 and has various species of newly planted trees such as willows, ash trees, maples and poplars, in addition to a fountain and recreational areas. In the same year, the space located at the foot of the wall, known as El Melgar, was also transformed into a park, while the environment of the Roman Gate was adapted, behind from the apse of the cathedral.

Lastly, other leisure areas in the city are the Parque del Aljibe, near the cathedral and named after a cistern (water tank) used in the Middle Ages, and the area around Fuente Encalada. This was built in 1674 and renovated in 1788 in neoclassical style and currently has a garden setting.

Transportation and communications

Car park

In 2011 there was a fleet of automobiles in the municipality at a rate of 465.3 automobiles per 1,000 inhabitants. According to the existing data in the database of the "Economic Yearbook of Spain 2012", published by La Caixa, In total there are 5,491 cars. In these same data, a park of trucks and vans of 1250 units is observed. The rest of the vehicles add up to 1,150 units, which brings the number of motor vehicles to 7,926 units. The city has a Technical Vehicle Inspection point located in the industrial estate.

Road network

La A-6 at its pass through the municipality

Public transport

Exterior view of the bus station

Bus

For passenger transport, the ALSA company offers road services between the city and multiple national destinations such as León, Ponferrada, La Coruña, Valladolid, Madrid, Gijón, or Barcelona. At a local level, there are several companies that offer services between Astorga and the towns of the surrounding regions.

Andenes from Astorga Train Station

Railroad

Since the arrival of the railway in the city in 1866, there has been a station, located in the neighborhood of Puerta del Rey, to the northeast of the city. This station is managed by Adif, and belongs to the Palencia-La Coruña line. The connections that Astorga maintains by rail, through the Renfe company, are the following:

Until 1983, the city was also the starting point of the Vía de la Plata railway, inaugurated on July 21, 1896, which spanned the distance between Astorga and Plasencia. For several years now, numerous organizations and companies have been calling for its reopening to effectively structure the west of the peninsula and recover the alternative of transporting goods by rail.

Air transportation

León airport, which came into service in 1999, is the only airport located in the province and the closest to the municipality, located between Valverde de la Virgen and San Andrés del Rabanedo, 44 kilometers from Astorga. other closer options for air transport are the airports of Valladolid and Asturias, located 157 and 193 kilometers away respectively.

Economy

House of Commerce and Industry Headquarters

Old grain silo

The economic structure of the city presents a weak industrial activity, with a great dependence on the service sector, public administration and, to a lesser extent, construction. The weight of agriculture is still important in the rural areas of the municipality.

Business activity and employment

In March 2013, there were a total of 596 establishments in the municipality that employed 2,280 workers. In 2007, of the total number of employed persons in the municipality, 1.3% of the population was in the primary sector, 14.6% in industry, 14.6% in construction, and most of them, 69.5%, were employed in the service sector, which shows the importance of this sector for the economy unemployment. Throughout the XXI century, unemployment has gone from 176 people in May 2005 to 778 people in March 2020, of which 341 were men and 437 were women.

Figure of evolution of Astorga's unemployment rate between 2006 and 2019

Source: Spanish National Statistical Institute - Graphical development by Wikipedia

Primary sector

Partial view of the weekly market, where products from Astorga and surrounding regions are sold

In 2011, the municipal area had an agricultural area of 1,045.8 ha, of which 1,021.5 ha were arable land, including dryland and irrigated crops, located to the east of the municipality, in the bank of the Tuerto river. Another fifteen represented orchard crops and 8.3 were fruit trees. The wine sector was, especially between the XIII and XV, one of the pillars of the city's economy, but already in the XVII wine had to be brought from Rueda or Toro due to the gradual disappearance of the terraced land belonging to the vineyard, of which only one hectare remains. The rest of the land is distributed between pastures (2,339.6 ha), forest species (557.9 ha) and other non-agricultural spaces (706.2 ha). At a general level, the primary sector employed 1.3% of the workers and represented 0.5% of the companies, the result of the tertiarization of the municipal economy. The agricultural activity is still present in the different districts while it is practically non-existent in the head.

Secondary sector

Partial view of the industrial polygon next to the A-6

Pablo Cecinas Plant in Astorga

In 2007, industry represented the second most important economic activity, employing 29.2% of the workers and representing 24.5% of the companies. For the most part, they are industries that do not carry out heavy activities and They also do not generate significant pollution. The most representative belong to the food industry with companies such as Cecinas Pablo, Dulces La Mallorquina or Alonso, whose production focuses especially on typical products such as puff pastry, mantecadas and cecina; of the latter two, Astorga is the seat of their respective denominations of origin. Although currently in the minority, the chocolate industry was very important from the mid-XIX century to the first third of the XX; For example, in 1916 there were 41 manufacturers, of which four are still in operation. All his legacy in wrappers, posters, lithographs and old machinery became part of the Chocolate Museum. Likewise, the textile industry was also present, of which only a factory survives and some testimonies such as a laundry.

The bulk of industrial activity is concentrated in the industrial estate, promoted by the City Council and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Its evolution has had four phases: the first (1991) of 65,000 m², the second of almost 50,000 m², the third (2007) of 79,000 m² and the fourth (2011), still in the development phase. In total, in 2011, there were 2 energy and water companies, 5 chemical companies, 24 metallurgical companies and 66 manufacturers in the city, with a total of 97 companies in the industrial sector. For its part, the construction sector registered a total of 100 companies.

The pedestrianization of part of the historic center has favored the development of small trade

Tertiary sector

In 2007, the services sector occupied a prominent place for the municipality, as it employed 69.5% of the workers and had 75% of the companies. The city is a reference economic center for the surrounding regions such as Maragatería and Cepeda, for which reason it presents an intense commercial activity; In 2012, it had sixty wholesale activities and in 2011 with 316 retail activities, of which 114 were food retail trade —sixteen were supermarkets—, 188 were non-food retail trade and fourteen were retail trade. minor mixed. Likewise, in 2012 there were fourteen deposit institutions, among which five were banks and six were savings banks.

Cultural tourism has a great weight within the service sector of the city due to its historical and monumental heritage, its festivities and the fact that it is a transit point for the Camino de Santiago and the Vía de la Plata. In addition, in its vicinity Typical maragato towns such as Castrillo de los Polvazares or Santiago Millas or emblematic places of the Jacobean route such as Foncebadón stand out. Thus, in March 2013 the municipality had 47 tourist establishments, of which three were travel agencies, nine were rural tourism accommodations —with a capacity of 115 beds—, sixteen were hotel establishments —with a capacity of 549 beds— and 47 were restaurants. Also, in 2011, there were 115 cafeterias and bars. Since 2004 the city has had a parking area for motorhomes.

Symbols and titles

The municipal heraldic shield has the following description:

Gules shield, an oak bouquet of its color. To the marquis' crown bell.

The date it began to be used is unknown. In a document from 1320 there appears a seal of the Council of Astorga in which a castle with three towers and a tree is represented. However, in 1635 the shield that is still in force was already used, as it appeared in the work of Pedro Junco Foundation, names and arms of the city of Astorga. He interpreted that the name of robur would come from the old name that the city received —Roma— and from there the representation of an oak, of which Quercus robur is one of the species most common, with the meaning of strength, firmness and strength, similar to the attributes of solidity and longevity of classical mythology. As for the red field, it would be similar to that of Rome, with the meaning of the blood of the enemy who tried to conquer the city. The rectangular flag has the following description:

Red flag with the shield in the center.

Regarding their titles, the city receives the denominations of «Very Noble, Loyal, Benemérita, Magnificent and Augusta». The first three were granted after the role played during the War of Independence; Centuries earlier it had been given the epithets "Augusta" by Emperor Caesar Augustus and "Magnificent" by Pliny the Elder.

Politics and Administration

The Consistorial House, in the Plaza Mayor

Court Building

Public administrations

Autonomic administration

The Government of Castilla y León has the powers concerning education, exercised by the Ministry of Education, in charge of managing both the teaching staff and the educational centers, and health, through Sacyl, which manages the health services of the municipality.

Municipal administration

The local administration of the municipality is the responsibility of a democratically managed council, whose members are elected every four years by universal suffrage. The electoral census is made up of all residents registered in Astorga over the age of 18, nationals of Spain and other member states of the European Union. According to the provisions of the General Electoral Regime Law, which establishes the number of eligible councilors based on the population of the municipality, the Municipal Corporation is made up of 17 councilors.

Judicial administration

Astorga is the head of the judicial district of the same name, number five in the province, and has two courts of first instance and instruction. The city also has a notary's office.

Municipal government

In the first democratic elections of 1979, the Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD) came to power led by Luis González Pérez and in the following legislature Recaredo Bautista governed at the head of the Popular Independent Electoral Association (AEPI). In the 1987 elections Juan José Alonso Perandones (PSOE) was left on the verge of an absolute majority, but the four opposition groups united to give the mayoralty to the minority candidacy of Adolfo Alonso Ares. However, two years later, Thanks to the support of the representative of the Democratic and Social Center (CDS), Rosa Fernández González, a motion of no confidence was filed that allowed Perandones to occupy the mayor's seat on March 29, 1989, a position he held until 2011, when he announced his withdrawal from politics.

In the elections of that same year, and after no pact between any of the political groups failed, the mayoralty was left in the hands of the list with the most votes, that of Victorina Alonso Fernández, successor to Perandones in the PSOE. In 2015 it was the representative of the PP, Arsenio García, who was elected mayor in a minority. On July 5, 2019, after a judicial dispute in which the PP claimed the validity of a vote initially declared invalid, whose nullity was finally confirmed the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León and that would have given one more councilor to the PP to the detriment of the PSOE, the municipal groups of the PSOE and IU agreed on a municipal coalition government that returned the baton to Perandones, after 8 years away from the political front line.

Municipal elections in Astorga between 1979 and 1999

Political party	1979		1983		1987		1991		1995		1999
	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors
PSOE	13.8	2	30.94	6	40.67	8	58.65	11	49,63	10	48.1	9
P (CD, CP and AP until 1989)	15,96	3	35,34	6	28,64	5	32,63	6	38,14	7	40,22	7
UPL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3.6	0	8,46	1
IU	-	-	-	-	-	-	1.94	0	2.43	0	1.3.	0
UCD	33,89	7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Other	36,34	5	33,72	5	29.17	4	6.3	0	4.58	0	0.18	0

Municipal elections in Astorga since 2003

Political party	2003		2007		2011		2015		2019
	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors
PSOE	46,79	8	45.11	8	35,68	7	18,45	3	33,85	7
P	37,19	7	31,14	6	35,59	7	40,68	8	38,66	7
UPL	13.53	2	9.61	1	3.16	0	1.68	0	7.11	1
PAL-UL	-	-	10,43	2	18,57	3	17,19	3	-	-
IU	-	-	-	-	3.51	0	16.1	3	11.91	2
Cs	-	-	-	-	-	-	2.39	0	4.45	0
Other	0.26	0	-	-	0.19	0	1.72	0	2.69	0

City

Juan José Alonso Perandones, mayor of Astorga between 1989 and 2011 and again from 2019

List of mayors from
1979 municipal elections

Period	Name of the mayor	Political party
1979-1983	Luis González Pérez	UCD
1983-1987	Recaredo Bautista	AEPI
1987-1989	Adolfo Alonso Ares	PDP
1989-2011	Juan José Alonso Perandones	PSOE
2011-2015	Victorina Alonso Fernández	PSOE
2015-2019	Arsenio García Fuertes	PP / Not registered
2019-	Juan José Alonso Perandones	PSOE

Government areas

The municipal executive management is organized into different areas headed by a councilor from the government team. The management areas of the City Council, during the 2019-2023 legislature are the following:

Facilities and services

Exterior view of CEIP Santa Marta

View of IES Astorga

The school La Salle

Social Welfare

Education

The existing educational offer in the city is specified, at the public level, in three infant and primary education centers, a secondary education institute and a special education center, and, at the private level, in three centers that teach from kindergarten to secondary education.

The institute offers Compulsory Secondary Education, Baccalaureate and some Vocational Training cycles such as Electricity and Electronics and Basic Cooking and Restoration, Bakery, Pastry and Confectionery, Administrative Management, Telecommunications Installations, Electrical and Automatic Installations, in intermediate grade, and Administration and Finance and Automation and Industrial Robotics, in higher grade.

Regarding special education, Astorga has an Official School of Languages —in which French, English and German are taught—, a Professional Music Conservatory, a Municipal Music School and an Education Center of Adult People.

Health

View of the new health center

Helicopter of the Sacyl

Local Assembly of the Red Cross

The city's health system is divided between the benefits of the public health system and those provided by private medicine. In relation to the first, Astorga has a health center in which the basic health areas of Astorga I —which includes the municipalities of San Justo de la Vega and Villaobispo de Otero, as well as Astorga itself— and Astorga are centralized. II —which includes Brazuelo, Val de San Lorenzo, Valderrey, Quintana del Castillo, Santa Colomba de Somoza, Magaz de Cepeda, Luyego, Lucillo, Villamejil, Villagatón and Santiago Millas—, and with a heliport where a helicopter of the 112 Emergency Service.

Likewise, the City Council is in charge of managing the powers established in article 42 of the General Health Law where it provides that the City Councils, without prejudice to the powers of other Public Administrations, will have the following minimum responsibilities in related matters with health:

• Environmental health control: air pollution, water supply, wastewater sanitation, urban and industrial waste.
• Health control of industries, activities and services, transport, noises and vibrations.
• Sanitary control of buildings and places of housing and human coexistence, especially of food centers, hairdressers, saunas and personal hygiene centers, hotels and residential centers, schools, tourist camps and areas of sports and recreational physical activity.
• Health control of the distribution and supply of perishable foods, beverages and other products, directly or indirectly related to human use or consumption, as well as means of transport.
• Sanitary control of cemeteries and mortuary health police.

The city also has a Spanish Red Cross post and seven pharmacies.

Citizen security

The former Hospital of the Five Llagas, currently the residence of the physically disabled

Estación de servicio en la confluencia de la avenida de Ponferrada y la carretera Madrid-La Coruña

Astorga Comarcal Killer

Astorga has endowments from the Civil Guard, Local Police and National Police that are in charge of ensuring citizen security. As in the rest of Castilla y León, the 112 Emergency system is operational. On the other hand, the El Teleno Maneuver and Shooting Field Command and the Field Rocket Launcher Artillery Regiment No. º 63, dependent on the Ministry of Defense.

Social services

The city has several private assistance centers such as the San Juan Bautista Residence, the San Francisco de Asís Residence, the El Chapin Residence and the Virgen de los Desamparados Residence, and the Las Cinco Llagas Social Center, for for the physically disabled and managed by Caritas|Caritas diocesan of Astorga. Likewise, since 1986 it has had the Pensioner's Home, a place of coexistence and activities for the elderly.

Public services and supply

Fuel

The supply of fuels derived from petroleum (gasoline and diesel) is carried out from the storage facilities that the Compañía Logística de Hidrocarburos (CLH) owns in the town of Vega de Infanzones, near León, and is supplied to the vehicles through two service stations, one from the Repsol YPF group and the other from Cepsa.

Water service

The comprehensive management of water in Astorga is the responsibility of the company Aquona. The catchment is carried out in the Tuerto river —dammed in the Villameca reservoir—, in the area of La Forti, from where it is pumped to the water treatment plant located in El Sierro. The water, once treated, goes to the tanks for its subsequent distribution to the city. Also, since 2008 Astorga has a wastewater treatment plant to which the water from the sewerage goes.

Waste and cleaning

Urban waste management is taken care of by the concessionaire company Urbaser, which carries out tasks such as garbage collection, street cleaning and treatment of the clean point. This is located next to the municipal cemetery, in the Puerta de Rey neighborhood. The municipality had a landfill, but thanks to the Castilla y León Urban Waste Plan, its sealing and subsequent recovery of the degraded area were approved., in the nearby town of San Román de la Vega is the Waste Treatment Center (CTR), with a container classification plant and an urban solid waste recycling and composting plant.

Food supply

For the supply of perishable foods such as fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, there are several supermarkets in the city as well as small traditional food establishments. Also, every Tuesday the weekly market is held, which occupies several streets in the urban center, and in which you can find clothing, footwear, jewelry, salted meats, fruits and vegetables.

Culture

Historical-artistic heritage

The footprint of the inhabitants who have inhabited the city and its surroundings throughout the centuries has been reflected in the architecture of Astorga, with a very important monumental wealth both in religious and civil buildings, with Roman, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Modernist. The municipality has seven declarations of Cultural Interest Assets: in the category of Historical Ensembles are that of Astorga itself and that of Castrillo de los Polvazares, and in the category of Monuments are the Surroundings of the Episcopal Palace, the Cathedral of Santa María —National Monument since 1931—, the Roman Ergástula, the Episcopal Palace and the Town Hall.

Roman Route

The first excavations took place in 1835, but it was not until the 1940s when, led by José María Luengo, they became more relevant. Work has continued since the end of the XX century, which has given rise to a route that allows visitors to visit various remains of its past Roman preserved in the subsoil of the city. The most outstanding findings correspond to the public sphere; Thus, two thermal complexes are preserved —Termas Mayores and Termas Menores— and the network of sewers, still in use; In the forum are the Aedes Augusti, a temple dedicated to the imperial cult, and the Roman Ergastula, a gallery or cryptoporticus on which the Roman Museum was installed. Regarding the private sphere, the so-called Domus of the mosaic of the bear and the birds is preserved, a house that follows the traditional scheme of the Roman domus and that represents one of the most characteristic constructions of the Roman period in the city.

Remains of the only Roman gate known so far

Also corresponding to the Roman legacy is the wall. The first defense that the Roman nucleus had was the moat of the camp in which the Legio X Gemina settled, dated years before the change of era. These are two V-shaped trenches that would be accompanied by an embankment and a wooden palisade. Later, in the I century, a first walled enclosure was built, with circular towers, and in the III the hill on which the old town is located was completely surrounded by a new wall. It was laid out and almost rectangular in shape, it had 27 semicircular cubes —each separated by about 16 meters— and was reused in medieval times. In the 19th century, the events that occurred during the War of Independence caused several damages to the fence and it was later demolished almost in the entire north and south canvases, as well as numerous cubes of the west canvas. There are no remains of the old doors, although they are preserved in the street names: Puerta Obispo, Puerta del Rey, El Postigo, Puerta del Sol, and Puerta de San Miguel.

Facade of the cathedral

Cathedral vault

Cathedral

The origin of the cathedral, dedicated to Santa María, dates back to 1069, when a first temple was consecrated by Bishop Pedro Núñez. It was later rebuilt in 1087, under Bishop Osmundo and in the XIII century, when Pedro Fernández was Bishop. This last rebuilding was the basis for the final extension, which began in 1471. From that moment the works lasted until the 18th century, which is why its layout combines Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements. The temple has a rectangular floor plan, a head with three apses, three naves and a false transept; on both sides of the main façade there are two towers. The first part of the building, with a Gothic design, was built at the end of the XV century and the first third of the XVI. Throughout the latter, Francisco de Colonia, Juan Gil de Hontañón and Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón directed the works, who contributed the Renaissance elements present especially in the transept and the southeast door. At the end of the XVII century the main façade began: the whole of it —which is in the Churrigueresque Baroque style, with three doors under arches and flanked by two towers— is organized as a stone altarpiece, with abundant decoration along it. Of these, the left one dates from 1678, but was first affected by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and later by the War of Independence —which is why it was not completed until 1965—, and the right one began in 1692 and was it finished in 1704. Also outside, on one of the turrets that crown the head, is the statue of Pedro Mato, a legendary character linked to the battle of Clavijo.

Inside, in addition to the choir with stalls from the XVI century and grate from the XVII, the different chapels are distributed: seven on the sides of the three naves, three at the head, one on each arm of the false transept and two more on the base of each of the towers. Of all of them, the chapel of Nuestra Señora de la Majestad stands out, in whose Altarpiece of the Virgen de la Majestad altarpiece is the image of the Virgen de la Majestad, from the XII; the Main Chapel, in which there is a Renaissance-style altarpiece by Gaspar Becerra; and the chapel of the altarpiece of San Miguel, an example of Spanish-Flemish art from the XVI century. Also part of the cathedral complex are the crypt, built in 1521 under the presbytery to be the pantheon of the Marquises of Astorga; the cloister, in neoclassical style from 1755 and consisting of five arcades in each wing joined by Ionic pilasters; the sacristy, from 1772 and in which an altar-reliquary in rococo style stands out; the dependencies of the Diocesan Museum and the Diocesan Archive.

Main portal of the palace

Side view of the palace

Episcopal Palace

After the fire of 1886, in which the old episcopal palace burned down, Bishop Joan Baptista Grau i Vallespinós commissioned the project of a new palace to the modernist architect Antoni Gaudí, with whom the bishop maintained an old friendship. The works began in 1889, but after the death of the bishop in 1893 Gaudí resigned as the director of the work due to disagreements with the Cabildo, when the second floor and the attic were still to be built. He was succeeded, without success, by the architects Francisco Blanch y Pons and Manuel Hernández Álvarez-Reyero, until with Julián de Diego y Alcolea as bishop, Ricardo García Guereta was appointed as the new director of the project, who completed the building in 1913. During the Spanish Civil War, served as the headquarters and headquarters of the Falange, and both in 1943 and 1956 the building underwent various repairs with the intention of turning it into the bishop's residence. This function was never consummated, and under the pontificates of Marcelo González Martín and Antonio Briva Miravent the building was promoted as the Museo de los Caminos, inaugurated in 1963.

The palace, built in gray granite from El Bierzo, follows the historicist canons of architecture from the end of the XIX century and early XX —in this case in neo-Gothic style— and has a Latin cross plan and four façades, with four towers at each of its angles. The initial intention was to combine the characteristics of a castle and a palace in the same building, hence the incorporation, for example, of a moat. The entrance is a portico with three flared arches, separated from each other by inclined buttresses, which is finished off with a pediment; Gaudí had planned to crown the façade with an angel five meters high, but in the end this idea was not carried out. The back part presents an apse, corresponding to the chapel, which is surrounded by three small apses. The ground floor contains a large hall, from which the noble staircase starts, whose height allows the opening of triangular windows that provide great light, a scheme already used by Gaudí in the Güell Palace and which is repeated in other rooms of the episcopal palace such as the office, the throne room, the dining room or the bedroom. The structure of the building is supported by pillars with decorated capitals and ribbed vaults on pointed arches of glazed ceramic. On the exterior, the figures of three angels are preserved, with the corresponding episcopal attributes (mitre, pectoral and crosier), which were designed by Gaudí as the top of the roof, but never came to occupy that place.

View of the Consistorial House in 1855

Town Hall

The construction of the City Hall building began in 1683 according to the project of Francisco de La Lastra and finished in 1703. Later the balconies were added (1730, Francisco García Casella), the tops of the side towers (1739, José Álvarez de la Viña) and the central belfry (1748, Domingo Martínez), which served to house the clock and the bells, the largest of which is accompanied by two dolls dressed as maragatos, named Juan Zancuda and Colasa, who mark the hours by hitting it with a mallet. It is a façade on three floors, with the axis of symmetry in the semicircular arch that gives access to the building, the belfry and the royal coat of arms. In the sculptural complex, the elements that function as gargoyles and the shields of the city and the Marquises of Astorga stand out in the right and left tower respectively. Inside, the plenary hall stands out, presided over by several commemorative tombstones, which some recall illustrious figures such as Manuel García Prieto, Pío Gullón Iglesias, Lope María Blanco de Cela, Manuel Gullón and García Prieto and Marcelo Macías, and others the most outstanding dates in the history of the city. The building was rehabilitated in 1987 by Andrés Lozano.

Other monuments

Facade of the Seminar

Church of Saint Andrew

The city has other buildings of cultural and architectural interest located mainly in the old town. Among them, the sanctuary of Fátima stands out, formerly called the church of San Julián, of whose Romanesque origin it preserves four capitals on the portal; the church of San Bartolomé, also begun in the Romanesque, with later reforms and Baroque interior decoration, in whose atrium councils were held until the construction of the Town Hall building; the church of Santa Marta, dedicated to the patron saint of the city, which was built in 1741 on top of a previous church with a neoclassical façade and baroque interior; the convent of Santa Clara, which experienced difficult times in 1810 during the sieges of Astorga, when General José María de Santocildes became strong within its walls before the attack by French troops, but which in 1816 welcomed the community again, which was not affected by the provisions of the confiscation for dedicating itself to teaching; the church and convent of San Francisco, from the XIII, on which the Redemptorist Fathers built a new building, hence the original convent joined the lost heritage of the city; and the Sancti Spíritus convent dates from the XVI and the interior of the church presents Baroque decoration.

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  Hastial of the church of San Bartolomé

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  Church of San Francisco

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  Exterior of the convent of Sancti Spíritus

The Major Seminary is also of a religious nature, a work from 1756 with a three-story façade and Herrerian traces, which has three closed cloisters and a neoclassical chapel; the church of Santa Colomba de Puerta de Rey, located since the XVII century —although the existing building is the result of numerous later reforms — in the vicinity of the disappeared convent of San Dictino; the Vera Cruz chapel, from the 15th century century, but rebuilt in 1816; the church of San Pedro de Rectivía, built on the side of the Camino de Santiago, which presents a modern design and a façade covered with mosaics installed in the nineties; and the church of San Andrés, built in brick at the beginning of the century XX by Hernández Álvarez-Reyero —influenced by Gaudí— according to the guidelines of historicist architecture, with traces of Gothic aesthetics, and which houses inside there is a baroque altarpiece from the missing church of San Miguel. Another of the buildings erected under modernist influence is the Casa Granell, built between 1910 and 1915 by Antonio Palacios Ramilo —author, among other works, of the Palacio de Comunicaciones in Madrid— commissioned by a chocolate businessman.

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  Church of San Pedro de Rectivía

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  Casa Granell

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  Cell of the sandwiches

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  Chapel of the Vera Cruz

Other buildings of interest are the Hospital de las Cinco Llagas, which was one of the most important hospitals for pilgrims in the city —its origins date back to the XI— and on which a building was built in the XVIII century, of which only the doorway is preserved, and the Celda de las Paredadas, a small space between the chapel of San Esteban and the church of Santa Marta that was used in the Middle Ages by women who walled themselves up all their lives for penance; It has a barred window that allowed charity and on it the inscription «remember my condition, because this will be yours. me yesterday, you today».

Registrations

During the period between 1998 and 2015, the Catholic Church in Spain has unregistered different properties, a process subject to some controversy according to certain authors, including the Secretary of State for Relations with the Courts and Constitutional Affairs of the Government of Spain, who affirms that "articles 206 of the Mortgage Law and 304 of the Mortgage Regulations, which allowed registrations in the name of the Catholic Church, are clearly unconstitutional insofar as they violate articles 14 and 16 of the Spanish Constitution".

Among the unregistered assets there is a series of them located in the municipality of Astorga, as it appears in the «List of Catholic Church Assets - Definitive, Page 244 of 931 (Pg. 926) of the «Study on immatriculation of real estate of the Catholic Church" published by the Ministry of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory of the Government of Spain on February 16, 2021.

The summary of the unregistered assets in the municipality of Astorga, according to this study, is as follows:

Lost heritage

The castle of the Marquess in 1857

There were in Astorga, both inside the city and on the outskirts, a large number of convents and hospitals or hostels for pilgrims due to the importance it had not only as a place of passage to Santiago de Compostela, but also as a crossroads. Most of these buildings have disappeared, leaving not even the memory of a vestige, only the certainty that they existed thanks to the descriptions and documents that speak of them. In 1872, the castle also disappeared —home of the Marquises of Astorga—, leaving only the trace of the name of a street: Calle del Castillo.

The historical documentation with which scholars have been able to find out about the disappeared heritage is due to the chronicles written by travelers and historians from one field or another who, since the 19th century, XVI to XX perpetuated facts and curiosities about the city. Reliable sources also offer the archives kept by the brotherhoods and some convents even from other towns, as well as the archive of the León Cathedral, with abundant information files. The data does not support, however, the possible references that the archives would have provided. municipal and cathedral, destroyed or disappeared during the Spanish War of Independence, the confiscations and the Spanish Civil War, and which are also part of the lost heritage.

Urban sculpture

Astorga Urban Sculptures

Name	Year	Author	Image	Name	Year	Author	Image
Monument to the Sites	1910	Enrique Marín Higuero		The Costume	2008	Castorina
Monument to Leopoldo Panero		Marino Amaya		Eleven sides, eleven centuries, a crown	2011	José Luis de la Iglesia
Monument to Manuel Gullón				Quo Vadis	2011	Sendo García
Immaculate Conception	1954	Marino Amaya		Maternity	2013	Castorina
Monument to the Bimilenario	1986	Castorina

Facade of the Roman Museum, erected on the so-called Roman Ergastula

Venue de la cofradía de la Santa Vera Cruz y Confalón, lugar donde se encuentra el Museo de la Semana Santa

Exterior view of the Municipal Library

Interior of the Chocolate Museum

Museums, archives and library

Plastic arts are present in the Cathedral Museum, the Museum of Roads and the Museum of Holy Week. The first, projected since 1889 by Bishop Grau, was inaugurated in April 1954 with two rooms, with Jesús Mérida Pérez being Bishop. Among its first visitors was the future Pope John XXIII and in 1989 John Paul II was there, on the way to Santiago de Compostela. With the reform of 1982 the exhibition space tripled with the incorporation of the old School of the Cathedral and the Hall Capitulate. In total it occupies ten exhibition halls, on two floors, covering one thousand four hundred square meters of surface area. It houses liturgical and religious works of the cathedral.

The Museum of the Roads is installed in the Episcopal Palace after its reorganization as such in 1962 by Bishop Mérida Pérez, without breaking the interior spatial distribution. It collects pieces from the entire Diocese, related to a greater or lesser extent with the Camino de Santiago, which, due to abandonment or conservation, needed an appropriate place for their installation. In the different rooms designed by Gaudí, among which are the Dining Room, the Official Office, the Throne Room, the Bedroom, the Chapel and the large hall, pieces of great artistic value are distributed, such as Romanesque carvings or medieval goldsmiths In addition, in the basement there is a collection of Roman and medieval archeology and numismatics, and the upper floor, already the work of García Guereta, was adapted in 1975 for the exhibition of works by contemporary artists from Leon.

Although all the imagery of Holy Week is kept independently in each of the city's parishes, as well as in the Episcopal Palace, the brotherhood of Santa Vera Cruz and Confalón organizes in its dependencies during the summer months a sample of its heritage, of which it is worth highlighting the Recumbent Christ, from the beginning of the XVII century and the work of Gregorio Español; the Golden Cross, bearer of the Lignum Crucis, the Jesus Tied to the Column and the Crucified One, from the 16th century; and a series of carvings from Levantine workshops. As a historical museum is the Roman Museum, installed on the Roman construction known as Roman Ergastula. After the total acquisition of the property by the City Council in 1996, the building was restored, on which two floors were built, and which was opened as a museum space in 1999. It exhibits objects found in the excavations of the city, which show the way of life and the people of the ancient Asturica Augusta, from its origins to the late Roman period, making up an outstanding collection both from the quantitative and qualitative point of view.

Dedicated to its chocolate industry, the city has the Chocolate Museum, founded in 1994 at the private initiative of José Luis López García and municipal ownership since 2005. It displays objects corresponding to the industrialization phase of the city in the 19th century, when the rise of the muleteering gave rise to an incipient chocolate industry in the region. Its collection, unique in Spain, contains old machinery, lithographic stones, engraving plates and collections of gift cards, among other pieces. Since 2015 it has a new headquarters, the modernist mansion of the chocolatier Magín Rubio and built by the architect Eduardo Sánchez Eznarriaga. Lastly, and dedicated to the so-called "Escuela de Astorga", in August 2011 the Casa Panero was inaugurated, home of the Panero family and a place frequented by members of the generation of '27 such as Gerardo Diego or Luis Rosales, which houses the funds of the writers belonging to the School, in addition to the legacy of the archaeologist José María Luengo.

Astorga also has a municipal library, created in 1931 and reorganized in 1944, whose headquarters are located in the old Hospice, a 18th-century building XIX rehabilitated in 1983 for cultural use. In addition, the city houses the Municipal Historical Archive, whose oldest document dates back to 1253 and among whose funds one of the two oldest council acts in Spain is kept, dated December 27, 1427, and the Diocesan Archive, created in 1973 and which houses the documentation generated by the Diocese from the year 898 to the present.

Performing arts and bullfighting

Facade of the Gullón Theatre

During the Patrons of Santa Marta the city enjoys various events such as street theatre

Astorga has, among other spaces, the Gullón theater, inaugurated in 1923; after its subsequent closure it was abandoned until in the nineties it was transformed into a nightclub. In 2006, the City Council bought the property and its rehabilitation began in 2011; after several years of work, it opened again in 2017. Likewise, the city has a cinema whose origins date back to 1911 as a theater and since the thirties as a movie projector.

Several events related to the world of acting and performing arts take place in the city. During the celebration of carnival, a magic festival is organized, which since 2004 brings together both Spanish and foreign magicians. In August, during the patron saint festivities of Santa Marta, the "Ars Via" street theater contest takes place, in in which, over several days, various companies represent their shows in different parts of the city. In September, and since 1998, the Astorga Film Festival has been held, in which, in addition to the national short film competition, different activities such as film series, exhibitions and conferences. During the Christmas holidays, and since 2002, the representation, through different streets of the historic center, of a story adapted to street theater.

Bullfighting is not deeply rooted and the number of fans is low, but it is common to schedule a bullfight during the Santa Marta festivities. The city has a bullring built at the beginning of the century XX, partly with materials from the demolition of the castle of the Marquises; until then the bullfighting festivities took place in the Plaza Mayor. The most prominent figure that the city has given in this field is the bullfighter Julio Norte, who took the alternative in the Íscar bullring in 1989.

Music

Music is a prominent element in the cultural life of the city, which has counted among its musicians Juan de Oliver, author of Sonatas de Palacio, Evaristo Fernández Blanco, precursor of serialism and author of Dramatic Overture, Venancio Blanco, who compiled The thousand and one popular songs of the Leon region, Antonio Celada or authors of sacred music such as José María Álvarez, Manuel Ansola or González Barrón. Since the end of the XX century, the organist Roberto Fresco stands out.

The city has different musical groups, among which the Municipal Music Band founded in 1894 stands out, although its origins date back to at least 1841. The rest of the formations represent very varied musical styles such as choral, instrumental, Celtic or rock, as well as the different Easter music bands.

In the month of July the International Music Course takes place, held annually since 1993, which is considered a benchmark in music education in Castilla y León for being the only one that offers all the orchestra and band specialties. Also in summer The Music in the Cathedral cycle is held, which consists of different concerts of sacred music. Another musical event is the music band contest, which offers a varied repertoire of processional marches each year in the days prior to the celebration of the Holy Week.

Festivities and events

Zuiza Parade

In April 2012 the bicentennial of the reconquest of Astorga was commemorated by the Spanish troops in the framework of the Spanish Independence War

Throughout the year there are several cultural and festive events that take place in the city. Chronologically, in mid-January the parish of Puerta de Rey celebrates the festival of San Antón with the traditional procession and blessing of pets. In February, the parish of San Pedro de Rectivía venerates the Virgen de las Candelas with a procession through the neighborhood. The same month, on a variable date, the carnival festivities begin on Piñata Saturday, the first after Ash Wednesday, with a parade with more than a hundred groups, brass bands and floats; weekend the burning of the Piñata on Sunday night.

In mid-April, the festival of the patron saint Toribio is celebrated, which since the beginning of the XXI century is complemented by the Trade Fair and a tapas contest among the city's restaurants. On a variable date, in years of drought it is traditional to pray for nine days in the Cathedral to the Virgin of Castrotierra, brought from her sanctuary, seventeen kilometers away, in a procession in which the inhabitants of the nearby regions participate together with the banners of each locality, their transfer being decided by the vote of the Earth Attorneys.

On variable dates, the Corpus Christi procession is celebrated. the Clavijo Banner —kept in the Town Hall— processions, receiving the honors of captain general and escorted by fifty zuizones. festivals, among other acts.

View of the bullring moments before the 2013 Roman Circus

At the end of July, the Astures and Romans festivities are celebrated, whose origins date back to 1986 and which were declared of Regional Tourist Interest in 2011; they commemorate the city's oldest past with acts such as the Roman circus, the Roman market or the installation of the Roman camp and the Asturian town in the Melgar park. At the end of August the patron saint festivals of the city take place in honor of Santa Marta, in which festivals and concerts are held, theater street, parades of giants and big heads, sports competitions, the Crafts Fair or the traditional "Long Night", the highlight of the festive events with non-stop music until dawn.

Lastly, and on variable dates —the first edition was in 2004—, the Napoleonic Days take place, which commemorate the events that occurred during the War of Independence, when the city suffered two sieges by French troops. The 2012 edition commemorated the bicentennial of the reconquest of the city by General Santocildes.

Holy Week

Step The mouthpieceon the morning of Palm Sunday

Image of Jesus Nazarene on the night of Holy Thursday, during the procession organized by the Brotherhood of Knights of Silence

Holy Week in Astorga has been declared of National Tourist Interest and Regional Tourist Interest, and during it eight brotherhoods and brotherhoods take to the streets, together with the Holy Week Promotion Board, carrying a total of forty steps. The set of these eight is made up of the Brotherhood of Santa Vera Cruz and Confalón, one of the oldest in the country, since the oldest document is from 1475, the Royal Brotherhood of Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno and María Santísima de la Soledad, of 1674, the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Sorrows, of 1911, the Brotherhood of Knights of Silence of Our Father Jesus Nazareno, of 1926, the Brotherhood of the Blessed Christ of the Afflicted, of 1943, the Brotherhood of the Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, from 1953, the Brotherhood of the Holy Supper, from 1969, and the Brotherhood of the Ladies of the Virgin of Mercy, from 1992.

Among the most outstanding events are the Stations of the Cross, organized by the Profomento Board, and in which all the brotherhoods participate; some of the events that take place on Good Friday, such as the Encuentro procession —with the traditional San Juanín race—, the Desenclavo in the Plaza Mayor or the Soledad procession; and the procession of the Risen One on Easter Sunday. Among the religious imagery, the carvings of the Crucified Christ stand out, from 1560, the Blessed Christ of the Afflicted, from the end of the XVII century, the Virgen de la Soledad, also from the end of the XVII century, the Virgen de los Dolores, work of 1706 by José de Rozas, the Jesus Nazareno, from 1783 or the Golden Cross, from 1789. Along with the religious, during Holy Week various customs are maintained that accompany the celebration, such as "killing Jews" or eating the bun - made of flour, honey and milk—accompanied by muscatel wine.

Cultural Life

Since the XIX century, Astorga has stood out as an important cultural center. Sampiro, who between the centuries X and XI wrote the Chronicle of his name, and Juan Lorenzo de Astorga, author, between the centuries XIII and XIV, from manuscript O of the Book of Alexandre.

The Church and its members played a prominent role in literary production; Thus, figures such as Alfonso de la Madre de Dios appeared, with his work Chronica de la reforma de su religión, from 1618, and Pedro Aingo de Ezpeleta, who published in 1634 Fundación de la Santa, Cathedral Church of the city of Astorga, or Pedro Junco, which in 1639 published Fundación, armas y nombres de Astorga. To these should be added the extensive documentary production generated by the |Diocese. In the XIX century, a list of authors were relevant, highlighting, among others, Marcelo Macías and Francisco Blanco García, author of Spanish Literature in the 19th Century, both from the ecclesiastical sphere, to the lawyers Alfonso de Villadiego, Mateo Martínez Moreda, Manuel García Prieto and Manuel Prieto de Castro, and to the bibliographer Andrés Martínez Salazar.

The Panero House recalls the so-called School of Astorga

At the beginning of the XX century, the profits generated by the chocolate industry had favored the rise of a wealthy bourgeoisie, among whom sons, a true "cultural parnassus" was born, with poets like Juan Panero and Leopoldo Panero, literary critics like Ricardo Gullón and writers like Luis Alonso Luengo, all of them members of the so-called "School of Astorga". Other poets such as Eugenio de Nora or Esteban Carro Celada, novelists such as José María Goy, intellectuals such as Julio Carro or scholars such as Augusto Quintana Prieto, Eduardo Aragón and José María Luengo contributed to cultural splendor, as well as the gatherings or debates that took place in different places of the city such as the Café Moderno, the Café Iris or the Gran Café Universal. In addition, different theater societies attached to the Casino, the Círculo Católico, the Segura Cultural Center, La Unión and the La Amistad Society were created.

Since the last decades of the XX century, the cultural life of the city has been led not only by the different acts that are celebrated in it, but, especially, by the more than fifty associations that exist, which, throughout the year, organize a multitude of activities and cultural events. Among them are social, cultural, sports, fathers and mothers and neighbors.

Language

Reclaimed on the use of traditional toponymy in signposts

The language spoken in the municipality is Spanish or Castilian, but until the XX century they survived in everyday speech, both from Astorga and its surroundings and from Maragatería, numerous forms from Leonese that belonged to the western variant of Astur-Leonese. Phonetically, some of the main features were the diphthongization of /o/ and /e/, the conservation of the decreasing diphthongs, the inflection of the stressed vowel, the replacement of the final /o/ by /u/ or the conservation of the initial Latin /f-/. In morphological aspects, the scarcity of prefixes stands out and, on the contrary, the abundance of suffixes, especially diminutives, and in terms of its |verbal system, the lack of compound tenses and the placement of personal pronouns behind the verb.

In recent years, various groups such as La Caleya and Faceira have carried out work to defend and promote the Leonese linguistic heritage through different activities, such as the organization of Leonese language courses, informative talks or literary contests. In In collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of the Junta de Castilla y León, the Provincial Council of León —through the Instituto Leonés de Cultura— and the Astorga City Council, several traditional Leonese story contests were held, in which schoolchildren up to 14 years of age participated. years of the province of León; The stories, written in the linguistic modalities of León —Leonese, Galician and Spanish— were embodied in the book Cuentos populares leoneses (escritos por niños). Likewise, the result of collaboration between the cultural associations Facendera Pola Llengua and La Caleya, in 2009 El Prencipicu was published, a version in Cabreirés dialect of the work of the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince. The book arose as a result of the pedagogical work carried out with seven Cabreirese students from the IES Astorga student residence within the so-called Aula de Cultura Cabreiresa.

Traditional clothing

Illustration of a maragate in the mid-centuryXIX

Grupo de maragatos de Murias de Rechivaldo

An important part of Maragato folklore is their traditional clothing. The typical muleteer's costume, in use during the XVIII, XIX and early XX, is notable among traditional costumes for maintaining its daily use until a late date; It is categorized among the trade suits, since it is what they wore when traveling, and it is characterized by being very functional, with materials and shapes that protected from the weather and facilitated the muleteering activity, and for evolving very little over time. being totally different from the costumes of the rest of the Leonese regions, unlike the feminine, which has progressively lost variety and uniqueness.

The men's costume consisted of a shirt, vest, pantyhose, panties or breeches, a belt —for holidays and dancing, embroidered according to social category—, leggings, shoes, hat, and cape. Some of these garments, such as the pantyhose or panties, seem to date back to the XVI or XVII, according to different authors; the latter present a certain singularity with respect to those used in other regions of Spain because they are of the wide-brimmed or baggy type, finding only a similarity in the typical Mallorcan costume.

The women's costume is an evolution of the ancient costume, influenced by the clothing of bordering areas and lacking the originality of the men's clothing, but which preserves a great wealth in terms of clothing and accessories. It is made up of the white skirt, the zagalejo (in cloth of various colors, depending on the social category of the person), the faltriquera —inner pocket—, the cloak, the apron —embroidered in silk or chenille, depending on the social category—, the doublet and neckerchief, head scarf — different from maiden and married —, mantilla and cloak for religious ceremonies, white ribbons and tips, shoes and jewelry — earrings or chokers, earrings and rings-. An exception to this typology is the costume of the Mayans, young dancers, more showy and colorful than the traditional maragata, highlighting red, green and white.

Crossroads

Map with the main Roman roads of Hispania

Due to its situation and historical development, Astorga has been since ancient times an enclave for the meeting and departure of paths, for the transfer of peoples and cultures. During Roman times it was connected to the main cities of the time through various routes Communication. Already in the so-called tables of Astorga, from the III century, several routes are mentioned in those mentioned Asturica. Also in the III century, the Antonino Itinerary indicates the network of communications that linked the city with Bracara Augusta (Braga) on route XVIII, or passing through Lucus Augusti (Lugo) on route XIX, to Augusta Emerita (Mérida), to Tarragona passing through Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza) on route XXXII or Ab Asturica Terracone, or with Bordeaux, along route XXXIV or Ab Asturica Burdigalam: practically to the four cardinal points of the Tarragona province, and through which troops and travelers transited and products were transported, mainly gold from Las Médulas.

From the south, the so-called Vía de la Plata linked Mérida with Astorga (Iter ab Emeritam Asturica) and centuries later, it would coincide in some points with the Cañada Real de la Vizana, through which they moved the transhumant herds on their journey from Extremadura to the mountains of León. de la Plata / Ruta de la Plata highway; Various institutions promote this axis as a tourist route with the name of Ruta de la Plata, which has generated dissensions, since historical evidence defines its route exclusively between Mérida and Astorga, and the Association of Towns of the Vía de la Plata, chaired by the Astorga mayor's office, since 2006 it has been carrying out protest actions against the artificial extension of the Vía.

To the east, the road that linked Asturica with Legio, and which then continued towards Caesaraugusta, was used as the Camino de Santiago, and became the base of the current N-120. For its part, to the west, the road to Lucus Augusti and Gallaecia would also become, centuries later, a section of the Camino de Santiago that, leaving Astorga, crosses Foncebadón, Ponferrada and Villafranca del Bierzo, among other places. From these main routes, other paths were woven, such as those of the muleteers or those of the raids, used both by the Muslims Tarik, Muza or Almanzor and by the French troops during the Spanish War of Independence. All of them always had a circulation that gave them life and contributed to the exchange of people and cultures, as well as the introduction of different artistic styles. Currently, Astorga collects the history of some of these communication routes in the Museo de los Caminos, created in 1962.

Camino de Santiago

Exterior view of the Siervas de María Hostel

Of the different pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, the most used and known since the Middle Ages is the French Way, which originates from the Ab Asturica Burdigalam Roman road. Its route arrives in Astorga from the town of San Justo de la Vega, entering the city through the old Puerta del Sol, now disappeared. The walker continues through San Francisco (formerly Calle de las Tiendas), Plaza Mayor, Pío Gullón (formerly Rúa Nueva), Santiago Crespo, Santiago (formerly Caleya Yerma), and ends in front of the Episcopal Palace, the church of Santa Marta and the cathedral. From there, the pilgrim continues through Leopoldo Panero, San Pedro, to reach the church of San Pedro, of modern construction and now in the suburb of Rectivía. Crossing the N-VI, the path continues towards the port of Foncebadón.

During the Middle Ages, the city had a good number of hostels or hospitals for pilgrims. Some, like the Hospital de San Juan Bautista, where according to tradition Saint Francis spent a few days of convalescence, gave rise to a modern charitable-assistance institution, but most of them gradually disappeared over the centuries, no longer remaining. more than his memory and some description of the property and its history in the preserved documentation. Until the end of the eighties, pilgrims found refuge and hospitality thanks to the congregation of the Brothers of Our Lady of Lourdes, but since then these services have been attended, on the one hand, by the Association of Friends of the Camino de Santiago de Astorga, which after offering its assistance in various locations has maintained the Siervas de María hostel since 2006, with a total of 164 beds, and on the other hand the San Javier hostel, opened in 2003 and managed by the Vía de la Plata Cultural Association, which offers 110 beds, and for the Só Por Hoje hostel, opened in 2019 and offers 10 beds. of the Jacobean routes.

Gastronomy

Plato de cecina de León

Astorga Buttering

Merles de Astorga

Gastronomy in Astorga is linked to the countryside and livestock in the area. The best-known dish is the cocido maragato, whose main characteristic is that it is served upside down, beginning with the meat —whose variety can reach twelve types—, followed by the chickpeas, potatoes and vegetables, and the soup, ending with the dessert, which usually consists of custard. The reason for this change in the order of the dishes is not known for sure, but the custom seems to come from the muleteers, who preferred to eat cold meat first and then, once they arrived to a population, heat the soup.

Other outstanding dishes are garlic soup, conger eel in garlic sauce, sweetbreads in sauce, cabbage with cod and cecina de León, a cold meat that since 1994 enjoys the benefit of a Protected Geographical Indication whose Regulatory Council is in Astorga. All these culinary possibilities, which were basic for the people of this area, are preserved and disseminated by the "El Borrallo" Gastronomic and Cultural Association, whose cooking days culminate with the slaughter of the pig, from which they obtain different products.

As for confectionery, sweets occupy a prominent place in Astorgan's cuisine. The greatest fame is provided by shortbreads, which have a Protected Geographical Indication. The first written mention of them dates from 1805, and in 1850 they began to be sold; its origin is uncertain, although it is believed that the recipe arose from a nun from the Sancti Spiritus convent, who abandoned her habits to get married and popularized it. Another sweet, also spread throughout the rest of the province, are puff pastries, covered in syrup and emerged in the middle of the XX century. Merles are also prominent, a puff pastry filled with cream and covered toasted sugar, and chocolate, already present in Astorga in the mid-XIX century, whose industry in 1916 had 41 factories in the city, of which only four remain.

Media

Headquarters of the newspaper The Astorgan Lighthouse

Media written

The journalistic tradition of Astorga goes back to 1852, when the first periodical publication came to light, the Boletín Ecclesiastico del Obispado. At the end of the century, in 1885, the weekly Pedro Mato appeared, in 1892, the Catholic weekly La Luz de Astorga and in 1899, El Heraldo Astorgano. In 1903 La Lid came out three times a week under the motto “liberty, progress, morality and work”, and El Faro Astorgano was founded, a Catholic lighthouse. The following year, El Pensamiento Astorgano began to be published, in 1906, El Evangelio en Astorga, and in 1907, El Adalid. Years later, in 1917, the weekly El Fresco was born, and in 1928 the weekly Humo began to be published under the tutelage of Ricardo Gullón, Leopoldo Panero and Luis Alonso Luengo.

Of all of them, El Faro Astorgano prevails, regional, provincial and regional in scope, with both printed and digital editions. It is joined by Cuadernos Municipales, dedicated to artistic and historical heritage, the magazine Catedral, of the Friends of the Cathedral Association, the magazine Argutorio, of the Monte Irago Cultural Association, as well as the publications of several of the Holy Week brotherhoods. In the same way, you can buy the national newspapers with the widest circulation, as well as the provincial ones Diario de León and La Nueva Crónica.

Electronic media

In Astorga you can tune in to some of the main radio stations that operate nationally and regionally, as well as those that have local stations in the city that broadcast spaces dedicated to local news when disconnected in different time slots, such as COPE Astorga and Castilla y León Radio.

Regarding digital media, at the local and regional level, it is worth noting the two websites of the City Council where citizens are offered the most significant institutional and tourist information, the digital version of El Faro Astorgano, the digital newspaper Astorga Redacción, founded in 2013, the digital newspaper Diario de Astorga, founded in 2014, and the portal Astorga.com.

Sports

Sports Pavilion Felipe Miñambres

Facade of the sports complex The Eragudina, where plays the Atlético Astorga

Sports entities

The most important sports entity in the city is the Atlético Astorga Club de Fútbol, which plays in the Third Division of Spain. Futsal has a great tradition in the city, which until 2001 had the Astorga Futsal team, which played in the First Division of the National Futsal League from its foundation in 1989 until 2001, the year in which the club disappeared due to financial difficulties.

Other disciplines or activities practiced in Astorga are cycling, with the Club Deportivo Cicloturista de Astorga, slot, with the Slot Club Astorga, motor sports with the Club Deportivo Moto-Quad Senderos Maragatos or the Moto Club Deportivo Astorga, hiking with the La Salle Sports Center Club, or kung-fu, at the school run by the Jiménez family, known for its displays of strength and resistance. Likewise, the City Council has various municipal sports schools such as athletics, basketball, futsal, wrestling and swimming.

Sports events

Among the main sporting events organized in the city are, on the one hand, the Cyclotourist March Against Drugs, which every year brings together several hundred participants on a route around Astorga, and on the other hand, local tournaments of various disciplines such as soccer, billiards or tennis during the celebration of the patron saint festivities of Santa Marta, at the end of August.

In 1947, 1967 and 2011, Astorga was the finish line or stage start of the Vuelta a España, also being several times in which it, the Vuelta a Castilla y León and the Vuelta Ciclista a León have gone through the town.

Facilities

For the practice of sport, there are various facilities located mainly in the La Eragudina area: the "La Eragudina" soccer field, where Atlético Astorga plays its matches, the "Felipe Miñambres" Municipal Sports Pavilion, municipal swimming pools, a gym, several tennis courts and two paddle tennis courts. Likewise, Astorga has a motocross circuit, located in the El Sierro area.

Twinned cities

The city of Astorga participates in the city twinning initiative promoted, among other institutions, by the European Union. From this initiative, ties have been established with the following locations:

Twin cities

Country	City	Date of twinning
Spain	Reus	1988
Western Sahara	Aargub	1993
France	Moissac	1996
Spain	Clavijo	25 March 2007
Spain	Merida	2012

Featured Characters

Minister Pio Gullón