Galicia is an autonomous community of Spain and historic nationality under Spanish law. Located in the northwest Iberian Peninsula, it includes the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra.
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of St. James, a leading Catholic pilgrimage route since the 9th century. In 1985, the city's Old Town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Ruthenia is an exonym, originally used in Medieval Latin as one of several terms for Kievan Rus', Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia, and after their collapse, for East Slavic and Eastern Orthodox regions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, corresponding to what is now Ukraine and Belarus.
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León. The kings of León fought civil wars, wars against neighbouring kingdoms, and campaigns to repel invasions by both the Moors and the Vikings, all in order to protect their kingdom's changing fortunes.
Galicia is a historical and geographic region spanning what is now southeastern Poland and western Ukraine. It covers much of such historic regions as Red Ruthenia and Lesser Poland.
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known as Austrian Galicia or colloquially Austrian Poland, was a Habsburg constituent possession which covered the historical region of Galicia in Eastern Europe, within the Austrian Empire, later Cisleithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, established in 1772 as a crownland of the Habsburg monarchy. It encompassed regions that were acquired by the First Partition of Poland. In 1804 it became a crownland of the newly proclaimed Austrian Empire. From 1867 it was a crownland within the Cisleithanian or Austrian half of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. It maintained a degree of provincial autonomy. Its status remained unchanged until the dissolution of the monarchy in 1918.
The Principality or, from 1253, Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, historically known as the Kingdom of Ruthenia, was a medieval state in the Eastern European regions of Galicia, Volhynia, Podlachia, Carpathian Ruthenia, Podolia, part of Moldavia, Kiev, and the territory of the Black Sea shore (Bessarabia). It existed from 1199 to 1349. Its territory was predominantly located in modern-day Ukraine, with parts in Belarus, Poland, Moldova, and Lithuania. Along with Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal, it was one of the three most important powers to emerge from the collapse of Kievan Rus'. The main language was Old East Slavic, the predecessor of the modern East Slavic languages, and the official religion was Eastern Orthodoxy.
Lodomeria is a derivative name (Latinized) of Volodymyr which was a name of a Ruthenian duchy, the Principality of Volhynia a western Kievan Rus' principality founded by the Rurik dynasty in 987 and centered in the region of Volhynia, straddling the borders of modern-day Poland, Ukraine and Belarus. The duchy of Volodymyr arose in the course of the 12th century along with the duchy of Halitch (Halicz).
Daniel of Galicia was a King of Ruthenia, Prince (Kniaz) of Galicia (Halych) (1205–1255), Peremyshl (1211), and Volodymyr (1212–1231). He was crowned by a papal archbishop in Dorohochyn in 1253 as the first King of Ruthenia (1253–1264).
Spain in the Middle Ages is a period in the History of Spain that began in the 5th Century following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and ended with the beginning of the Early modern period in 1492.
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.
Western Ukraine or West Ukraine is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Second Polish Republic, and came fully under the control of Russia only in 1939, following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. There is no universally accepted definition of the territory's boundaries, but the contemporary Ukrainian administrative regions or Oblasts of Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankovsk, Lviv, Ternopil and Transcarpathia are nearly always included and the Lutsk and Rivne Oblasts are usually included. It is less common to include the Khmelnytski and, especially, the Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr Oblasts in this category. It includes several historical regions such as Transcarpathia, Halychyna including Pokuttia, most of Volhynia, northern Bukovina, and western Podolia. Less often the Western Ukraine includes areas of eastern Volhynia, Podolia, and small portion of northern Bessarabia.
The flag of Galicia appeared for first time in the 19th century, probably based on the colours of the ancient medieval flags of the Kingdom of Galicia. Originally, the flag was probably a blue St Andrew's Cross over a white field – St Andrew is one of the most popular saints in Galicia. The Coat of Arms of Galicia was actually the former flag of the Kingdom of Galicia. The colors blue, white and gold were always related with Galicia. The chalice, with a silver host, and the golden crosses on blue background have been its symbol since medieval times. For some time it was thought that it was based on the flag of the maritime province of Corunna, but today it is known that the design is earlier.
Galician, also known as Gallego, 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 is co-official 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.
The General Government of Galicia and Bukovina was a temporary Imperial Russian military administration of eastern parts of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria captured from Austria-Hungary during World War I.
