Burgos

:For other meanings, see Burgos (disambiguation)

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A city of northernwestern Spain, at the edge of the central plateau, Burgos has 166,000 inhabitants in the city proper and another 10,000 in its suburbs. It is the capital of the province of Burgos.

Related Topics:
Spain - Province of Burgos

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Founded in the 9th century, but retaining its Visigothic name signifying consolidated walled villages (burgos), the city was the seat of a Catholic bishop from the 10th century and became in the 11th century the capital of the kingdom of Castile. Burgos was a major stop for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela.

Related Topics:
9th century - Walled - 11th century - Castile - Santiago de Compostela

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Burgos had been a Celtiberian city, part of the Roman province of Hispania Citerior and then of Hispania Tarraconensis. The Visigoths drove back the Suevi, then after a brief Moorish occupation, Alfonso III the Great, king of León reconquered it in the mid 9th century. Diego Rodríguez "Porcelos", count of Castile, gathered the inhabitants of the surrounding country into one fortified village, which took the name of Burgos. The city thus defined began to be called Caput Castellae ("chief of the castles"). The territory (condado) of Burgos, subject to the Kings of Leon, continued to be governed by counts and was gradually extended; Fernán González, the greatest of these, established his independence.

Related Topics:
Hispania Citerior - Hispania Tarraconensis - Suevi - Alfonso III the Great - King of León - Kings of Leon

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In 1574 Pope Gregory XIII made its bishop an archbishop, at the request of Philip II. Burgos still possesses more ecclesiastical monuments than any other Spanish city, not even excepting Toledo. The three most outstanding are the cathedral, with its chapel of the Condestable, the monastery of Las Huelgas, and the Carthusian monastery of Miraflores (see below).

Related Topics:
1574 - Pope Gregory XIII - Philip II - Toledo - Carthusian

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Burgos has been the scene of many wars: with the Moors, the struggles between León and Navarre, and between Castile and Aragon. In the Peninsular War against Napoleonic France, Burgos was the scene of a battle, and again in the 19th century Carlist civil wars of the Spanish succession. During the Spanish Civil War Burgos was the base of Gen. Franco's rebel Nationalist government.

Related Topics:
Moors - Aragon - Peninsular War - Carlist - Spanish Civil War - Franco

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