oscarps
It was the Muslims from North Africa who took advantage of the strategic place on which the original Roman colony was based as a military base to confront the Christian kingdoms of the north during the first centuries of the Reconquest. Thus, in the year 1147 Abd al-Mumin refounded the city on the Hispanic-Roman and Visigothic remains. From the Arab derives the present name of Vía de la Plata, denomination of the Roman road that united Astorga with Mérida, of Arab Balata, causeway, from where derived – by corruption – the word “silver”.
