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Celtic Asturies

Celtic music and culture in northwestern Spain?

You better believe it!

A brief history of the Celts

The earliest Celtic culture and people known as Protocelts, seem to have originated in a far Eastern zone, The Kurganes, located in between the European Continent and India. This is the reason why all these tribes are identified under the denomination of "Indo-Europeans".
Originally, this area in the Southern part of Russia stretched over both the mountainous zones of the Caucasian Mountain Range and lower parts of the extense steppes located at their bottom (feet) in between the Caspian and the Black Seas. These Indoeuropean roots of the Celtic Culture are still evident in the oldest Celtic Music, which carries a distinctive Middle-Eastern flavour.

Allong with other Indoeuropean tribes, and from this zone, the barbarian Celtic tribes invaded Europe around the 2000 B.C. In that moment they are still identified as Protocelts (by the current experts), and will not become the Celts we know until they well settled in Central Europe. They settled first in the areas of Eastern Europe now known as Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania and the Balkans. During the Bronze Age they continue to spread westward again. By the Iron Age (around 8th to 5th BC), these tribes were firm settled in what is now southwest Germany, eastern France and parts of Switzerland. This is known as the Hallstat period, and is the point at which historians begin calling these people "Celts". After that, in the La Tene period, the Celts spread out into most of Europe, invading much of Germany, France, the Iberian Peninsula (most of Spain and Portugal), and the British Islands and Ireland. Later, Celtic branches turned back eastward again, moving into northern Italy, Bohemia, Silesia, the Balkans and the Eastern European Countries, into Eastern Asia (the Gaulatians). Therefore, at the height of their power in the 1st century BC, the Celts were the dominant ethnic group in much of Europe, and were even dominating the Germanic tribes.
Some of the Celtic groups were the Gauls that fought long and hard against the Roman Empire.


The Celtic Culture also spread over much of the Iberian Peninsula, except for its Southern and Mediterranean coasts. The main Celtic groups in this area were the Celtiberians or "Celts of Iberia" (located in the two plateaus of Central Spain), the Lusitanians who settled in what we know today as Portugal, and the Galaicos, the Ástures and the Cántabros in the Northwest and along the northern coast of Spain.
After its splendour until the 1st century BC, the Celtic culture gradually experienced its decline under the pressure of two fronts: from the south, the powerful Roman Empire and, then, from the north the Germanic tribes. They began to erode the Celt's hold on their territory. Hence, the Celts began to lose their independence and Celtic cultural identity in most of their historic domains. As the invaders moved into Celtic lands, the inhabitants were dispersed, or romanised, germanised or, latter, christianized and vikingized. But in the more remote or less accessible regions that the invaders did not reach or could not conquer, the Celts were able to hold on to their culture and keep it strong.

Fernando and Pindy in an Asturian forest.

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The people living in those regions, where many Celtic cultural aspects are still very alive today, are considered the inheritors of the ancient Celtic culture. They feel fiercely proud of their Celtic traditions and heritage. The citizens of Ireland, Scottland, the Isle of Mann, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Asturies, and Galicia are the Celts of modern Europe. They belong to what is today known as the "Celtic Atlantic Arch", and representatives from these eight countries and regions participate in the "Interceltic Festival of Lorient" in Brittany every year.
In all these areas, the romanization and germanization was little or none, and the christianisation was less intense or more flexible, overlapping with pagan religious aspects.

Though the Roman Empire conquered most of the Iberian Penninsula (what is now Spain and Portugal), it could never dislodge two Celtic ethnic groups, the Ástures and the Cántabros, from their wild and unreachable mountain stronghold of Northwestern Spain. They were described by the chronicles of Roman historians as "the most powerful and wild tribes of Hispania." They were very little Romanised (only along the coastal areas) but still christianised some centuries later. Similar phenomenon happened in some of the other countries that belonged to the historic "Celtic Civilization."

Fernando in an ancient "braña" of Celtic tradition in Asturias

There are many ancient Celtic archeological sites in Asturies today. Many of its churches and buildings incorporate pre-Christian Celtic designs and motifs in their architecture, and many many of the rural folk still hold fast to pagan Celtic beliefs.
Just listen to the stirring music of Asturies to hear its obvious Celtic roots!