The first Christian kingdom of the Reconquista, founded by Pelayo in the Cantabrian mountains around 718 and, by 924, transformed into the Kingdom of León.
The Kingdom of Asturias arose from the revolt Pelayo led after the Umayyad conquest, taking shape as a distinct realm in the mountainous north-west of Iberia during the eighth century. Protected by the Cantabrian range, it endured where the Visigothic kingdom had collapsed.
From early seats at Cangas de Onís and later Oviedo, its kings pushed the frontier gradually south as Muslim power was drawn elsewhere. By the early tenth century the centre of gravity had moved to León, and around 924 the realm is conventionally reckoned to have become the Kingdom of León.
Rulers such as Alfonso I, Alfonso II and Alfonso III extended Asturian control over the Duero valley, repopulating frontier lands and presenting themselves as heirs of the Visigothic monarchy. This "neo-Gothic" claim gave the young kingdom a usable past and a justification for reconquest.
Asturias also produced a remarkable pre-Romanesque architecture — churches and palaces such as Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo near Oviedo — and the Cross of Victory, later the emblem of the region. These survivals are the most tangible legacy of a kingdom otherwise thinly documented.