Caravia is a municipality in the

Autonomous Community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...

of the

Principality of Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive ...

, Spain. It is bordered on the north by the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

, part of the

Cantabrian Sea The Cantabrian Sea; french: Mer Cantabrique, gl, Mar Cantábrico, ast, Mar Cantábricu, eu, Kantauri. is the term used mostly in Spain to describe the coastal sea of the Atlantic Ocean that borders the northern coast of Spain and the southwest ...

, on the south by

Parres Parres is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It is bordered on the north by Caravia and Ribadesella, on the east by Cangas de Onís, on the west by Piloña and Colunga, and on the south by Amieva ...

, on the east by

Ribadesella Ribadesella (Asturian: Ribeseya) is a small municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. Known for its location on the Cantabrian Sea, at the outlet of the River Sella, Ribadesella is a town that forms part ...

and on the west by

Colunga Colunga () is a municipality in the Autonomous community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It lies on the Cantabrian Sea, and is bordered to the west by Villaviciosa, to the south by Parres and Piloña, and to the east by Caravia. Polit ...

Geography

Caravia is the third smallest municipality of Asturias. The population is centered mainly in Prado (Prau in Asturian), the municipal capital, Duesos and Duyos. It is 68 km from

Oviedo Oviedo (; ast, Uviéu ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city. Oviedo is located ap ...

, the capital of the principality. There are mountain summits in the southern parts of Caravia, with Fito (631 m) being the highest. In the north there are three main beaches: Beciella, Arenal de Morís and Espasa. The beaches are separated by great cliffs along the coast. The rest of the municipality has little variation in

orography Orography is the study of the topographic relief of mountains, and can more broadly include hills, and any part of a region's elevated terrain. Orography (also known as ''oreography'', ''orology'' or ''oreology'') falls within the broader discipl ...

. Its main watercourse is the Romeros river. Together with the municipalities of

Piloña Piloña () is a municipality in the province and autonomous community of Asturias, northwestern Spain. Its capital is the town of Infiesto. Piloña is bounded to the north by Villaviciosa and Colunga, to the east by Parres, to the west by Nav ...

and

, Caravia is part of the geographic area known as Sierra del Sueve.

Parishes

* Caravia Alta * Caravia Baja

History

Paleolithic

The first humans in Caravia were during the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

period, during the time when humans began to use stone tools. From this time period, there are ruins known as "Les Vaques" and "La Pongueta", located near Duyos, where Paleolithic humans lived near a small river and rocky escarpment.

Recent Prehistory

There is a large

dolmen A dolmen () or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BCE) and were somet ...

-like

tumulus A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...

(or burial mound) near Beciella beach, by the mouth of the Romeros river. Nearby, there is also the Necrópolis de la Tuerba, formed by three tumuluses located in the coastal plain.

Iron Age

The first excavations made in the Picu el Castru, were carried out August 22, 1917, by Aurelio de Llano. He found a prehistoric fortification in his first dig, located two kilometers from the sea at an altitude of 380 m. This fortification had a perimeter of 225 m. From this

castro Castro is a Romance language word that originally derived from Latin ''castrum'', a pre-Roman military camp or fortification (cf: Greek: ''kastron''; Proto-Celtic:''*Kassrik;'' br, kaer, *kastro). The English-language equivalent is '' chester''. ...

-style fortification, both the sea and the mountains can be seen, making it an ideal location to oversee Caravia and Colunga. It is accessed by a meandering ramp which leads to the interior containing the foundations of rectangular huts, 4 by 3 m, separated one from another by 90 cm. According to Aurelio de Llano in his book "The Book of Caravia", the fortification contained tools, domestic utensils, and feminine jewelry. There were

fibulae The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...

made of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

and

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

, pendants and necklaces. One notable bronze fibula was decorated with an embossed pony. Aurelio de Llano determined that the fortification dates back to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

(2500 BC to 900 BC). All the pieces coming from the excavation are currently in the

Archaeological Museum of Asturias The Archaeological Museum of Asturias (Spanish: Museo Arqueológico de Asturias; Asturian: Muséu Arqueolóxicu d'Asturies) is housed in the 16th century Benedictine monastery of Saint Vicente in Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. Its findings include ...

Roman Era

One important

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

exists from the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

, known as the Stele of Duesos (La Estela de Duesos). It was discovered on the exterior of the Church of Duesos, carved in a

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...

block. The existence of these steles, frequently embedded in Christian churches during their construction, is due to the conversion to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

of places where

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

religions were formerly practiced. The stele is a fragment without epigraph and it is decorated on all four sides. The decoration is divided in registers, and the head is undecorated. A recurring theme of the carving is curved radii similar to a

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...

. It is similar to Roman steles, but maintains traditional indigenous features. Among the materials taken from the fortification, there are examples of decorations similar to the stele.

Demography

Politics

References

External links

Federación Asturiana de Concejos
(Spanish) {{authority control Municipalities in Asturias *