Send Gift Baskets to Vitoria Gasteiz, Spain

As a celebration of his victory over the Vascons, Visigoth king Liuvigild founded the city of Victoriacum in 581 AD near the hill occupied by Gasteiz, emulating the Roman foundations. However, this needs to be sufficiently proved, and some historians and experts contend that Victoriacum was not located on the site of present-day Vitoria-Gasteiz but nearby. One of the most prominent suggestions is the late Roman military camp of Iruña-Veleia (cf. J.M. Lacarra). On the banks of the same river as modern Vitoria, Veleia lies approximately 11 kilometers north. Archeological studies suggest Veleia was last inhabited c.5th century A.D. archeologists are still searching for a 6th-century Visigothic settlement. Another theory suggests Victoriacum was located at the foot of Mount Gorbea, near a village called Victoriano. It has also been recommended that Victoriacum might be situated in Armenia today, on the outskirts of Vitoria. Victoriacum vanishes from history shortly after its foundation, in either case.

On top of a hill at the site of the previous settlement of Gasteiz, Sancho the Wise, the King of Navarre, founded Nova Victoria as a defensive outpost in 1181. Vasconic people inhabited Gastehiz by the lower Middle Ages; the settlement was already walled by the 11th century, before the foundation of Nova Victoria. Sancho the Wise named Victoriacum in honor of the old disappeared payment. Alfonso VIII of Castile captured the town after nine months of siege and annexed it to his kingdom in 1199. Eventually, the town grew, and King Juan II of Castile granted it a city charter in 1431. As well as Sajazarra, Miranda de Ebro, Pancorbo and Salvatierra/Again, it was one of the five founding villas of the Brotherhood of Lava in 1463.