Principality of Asturias
In 1999 the Oviedo City Council gave the building known as "La Casina" (which means "The Little House") of "El Fontán" to the Jewish Community of Asturias. This building provides a Jewish cultural center dedicated to study, dissemination and promotion of Jewish culture in all its aspects.
We often see the disaster that leads to intolerance and xenophobia, times when we speak of ethnic cleansing. We are witnessing scenes that we thought forgotten and relegated to the darkest pages of history. So it is essential not to talk just about tolerance, but we need a genuine exercise in integration and equality.
Oviedo is a good place for it, a city open to the world, with a great cultural tradition, a city where nobody is a foreigner. Therefore, the Oviedo City Council has given this house to the Jewish Community of the Principality of Asturias in the emblematic and traditional arcaded square of "El Fontán".
The Jewish Community of Asturias is a meeting place that gives us insight into an enriching mutual understanding.
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The Jews in the medieval Asturias
Oviedo's history began in 761 when a group of monks settled on the hill Oveta. Oviedo Alfonso II chose it as the capital of the Kingdom of Asturias in 808. He enlarged and beautified it with palaces, churches and public works. This effort was continued by Ramiro I, Ordoño I and Alfonso III until the sons of the late king moved the royal court to León, and Oviedo was no longer the capital of the kingdom (910-924). The city of Oviedo is now the political and administrative center of the Principality of Asturias and enjoys a high international profile through the Prince of Asturias Awards and by partnering with cities around the world. Urban life in Oviedo is lively and concentrated in the old town which has been restored and closed to traffic.
No one knows the exact date at which Jews arrived in Asturias. Based solely on the documentation found so far in Asturias, there are clear references to the mid-eleventh century Council of Coyanza held in the Diocese of Oviedo in 1050 which states in Chapter VI: "... no Christian shall live in the same house with Jews or eat with them; if anyone infringes our constitution, they shall do penance for seven days, and if not willing to do it, being a noble person, they shall be deprived of communion for a full year, and if an inferior person they will receive a hundred lashes."
But it is in the twelfth century when the rise and importance of the Jewish people is more noticeable in this region. Jewish witness signatures begin to appear more often on donation pledge cards from 1133. Asturias names are not very common among the Jewish population in other parts of the peninsula around the same time, perhaps causing confusion.
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