The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded by the Suebic king Hermeric in 409, with its capital established in Braga. It was the first kingdom that officially adopted Catholicism. In 449, it minted its own currency. In 585, it became a part of the Visigothic Kingdom. In the 8th century, Galicia became a part of the newly founded Christian Kingdom of Asturias, which later became the Kingdom of León, while occasionally achieving independence under the authority of its own kings. Compostela became the capital of Galicia in the 11th century, while the independence of Portugal (1128) determined its southern boundary. The accession of Castilian King Ferdinand III to the Leonese kingdom in 1230 brought Galicia under the control of the Crown of Castile.
Arms of the Kingdom of Galicia, illustrated in L´armorial Le Blancq, Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1560
Theodemar (or Ariamir), king of Galicia with the bishops Lucrecio, Andrew, and Martin. Codex Vigilanus (or Albeldensis), Escurial library
Miro, king of Galicia, and Martin of Braga, from an 1145 manuscript of Martin's Formula Vitae Honestae, now in the Austrian National Library. The book was originally dedicated to King Miro with the header "To King Miro, the most glorious and calm, the pious, distinguished for his Catholic faith"
Monastery of San Pedro de Rocas, Galicia, founded in 575 and inhabited until the early 20th century
Galician, also known as Galego, is a Western Ibero-Romance language. Around 2.4 million people have at least some degree of competence in the language, mainly in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it has official status along with Spanish. The language is also spoken in some border zones of the neighbouring Spanish regions of Asturias and Castile and León, as well as by Galician migrant communities in the rest of Spain, in Latin America including Puerto Rico, the United States, Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe.
Vindel's parchment, containing music and lyrics of several 13th-century cantigas by Martin Codax
One of the oldest legal charters written in Galician, the constitutional charter of the Bo Burgo (Good Burg) of Castro Caldelas, 1228
Mediaeval Galician inscription in a 14th-century house, in Noia: "ESTAS CASAS MANDOU FAZER VASCO DA COSTA, ERA DE MCCCLXXVII" These houses were ordered by Vasco da Costa, era 1377 (1339 AD)
Cantigas de Santa Maria, 13th century