The incursions of the Norsemen into what is now Spain and Portugal have been the focus of new research on this largely forgotten history.Īrchaeologists have discovered the anchors of Viking longboats in Galicia washed ashore during a storm near what appears to be a longphort or Viking encampment. Since the transition to democracy and greater freedom after the death of Franco in 1975, Spain has delved deeper into its Roman, Visigothic and Viking past. This may partly be due to the fact that their raids on Spain from the ninth to the 11th centuries coincided with the ascendancy of Muslim rule there – a key focus of historians since the 1980s. And, while Roman, Visigothic and Muslim heritages all live on today in varying degrees, the medieval legacy of the Vikings in Spain is more obscure. Spain has suffered invasion and conquest more than any other European country except perhaps Russia. The festival commemorates Galicia’s resistance to the Viking raids that took place there a more than 1,000 years ago, when the invaders tried to plunder the treasures of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. This year there were actually six Viking longboats in the festival, a reflection of its growing popularity in the region. The boat, manned by townsfolk disguised as Viking warriors, stages a ferocious onslaught on the town which is successfully fended off by the other residents in a tussle that ends up with both sides soaked not in blood, but wine.Īfter the battle, both victors and Vikings share a traditional lunch of mussels and octopus, and perform the verbena, a traditional Galician dance. Every year, on the first Sunday in August, the replica of an 11th-century Viking longboat sails up the river Ulla to the town of Catoira in northern Spain.
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