The area of Santiago de Compostela was a Roman cemetery by the 4th century, being occupied by the Suebi in the early 400s, during the initial collapse of the Roman Empire when they settled in Galicia and Portugal. The area was later attributed to the bishopric of Iria Flaviain the 6th century, in the partition usually known as Parochiale Suevorum, ordered by king Theodemar. In 585 the whole settlement together with the rest of Suebi Kingdom was annexed by Leovigild into the Visigothic kingdom of Spain as the sixth province of the realm.
Maybe raided from 711 to 739 by the Arabs, the bishopric of Iria was incorporated into theKingdom of Asturias c. 750; some tens of years later, at some point between 818 and 842, bishop Theodemar of Iria (d. 847); found some remains which were attributed to Saint James the Greater, during the reign of Alfonso II of Asturias. Allegedly, the Pope andCharlemagne—who anyway was dead by 814—would have had an important role in the discovery and acceptance of this find. Around the place of the discovery emerged a new settlement and centre of pilgrimage, which was already known by Usuard in 865, and that was called Compostella at least from the 10th century.
From this same 10th century on, Compostela became a politically relevant site and severalkings of Galicia and of León were acclaimed by the Galician noblemen, and crowned and anointed by the local bishop at the cathedral, among them Ordoño IV in 958, Bermudo II in 982, and Alfonso VII in 1111, so Compostela becoming capital of the Kingdom of Galicia. Later kings were also sepulchered in the cathedral, namely Fernando II and Alfonso IX, last of the Kings of León and Galicia before both kingdoms was united with the Kingdom of Castile.
From the 10th century onwards the site became a pan-European place of peregrination, second only to Rome and Jerusalem. During this same 10th century and in the first years of the 11th century Viking riders tried to assault
