Gijon City Map Poster

About Gijon

Gijón was born as a result of the industrial revolution in the 19th century. The city has been populated since prehistoric times, but it is not known when it officially became an inhabited area. In Roman times, there was already a settlement that they called Asturica Augusta and that belonged to Cangas del Narcea; Gijón's name could have come from this period or from earlier ones (the Visigoths). It is believed that its first settlers were fishermen and sailors who came from South Wales to found villages on the coast under control of Counts Palatine Asturias de Oviedo. The oldest historical memory preserved dates back to 1067 when king García Sánchez III of Navarre gave Sancho Ramírez territories including "Asteriz" (Astorga) and "Gisconium" (Gijón), where he founded his capital city with its own laws according to what said Pascual Madoz in his dictionary published between 1857–1860: ""...