OVIEDO, a city in the north of Spain, capital of a province of the same name, stands on a gentle northern slope, about 72 miles by rail and diligence to the north of Leon, and 14 miles to the south of the Bay of Biscay. About a mile to the north-west is the Sierra de Naranco, a Red Sandstone hill 1070 feet above the sea and about 470 above the town, which is thus sheltered from the north wind, but subject in consequence to a large rainfall. Most of the town was burnt in 1521, and the reconstruction, till recently, has been irregular. The four main streets are formed by the roads connecting Gijon and Leon (north and south) and Grado and Santander (east and west), which cross each other in a central square, the Plaza Mayor. The streets are clean and well lighted; the projecting roofs of the houses give a characteristic effect, and some portions of the old Calle de la Plateria are highly picturesque. In the Plaza Mayor are the handsome Casas Consistoriales, dating from the 17th century; one or two deserted mansions of the nobility are architecturally interesting. The university, founded by Philip III. in 1604, is lodged in a plain building, 180 feet square; connected with it are a small library and physical and chemical museums. The cathedral, an elegant Perpendicular building of the 14th century, occupies the site of an earlier edifice, founded in the 8th century, of which only the Camara Santa remains. The west front has a fine portico of ornamented arches between the two towers. Of these one, very richly adorned, has been completed, and is 284 feet high; the other, which is larger, does not as yet rise above the nave. The interior has some fine stained glass, but has been much disfigured with modern rococo additions. The Capilia del Rey Santo (Alphonso II., who died in ...

OVIEDO Y VALDEZ, Gonzalo Fernandez de (1478-1557), an early historian of Spanish America, was born at Madrid, of noble Asturian descent, in 1478. He was brought up at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella as one of the pages of Prince John; in this capacity he was present at the surrender of Granada in 1492, and saw Columbus at Barcelona on his first return from America in 1493. In 1514 he was sent out to San Domingo as supervisor of the gold-smeltings. He only occasionally afterwards visited his native country and the American mainland. Among other offices subsequently added to his original appointment was that of historiographer of the Indies, in the discharge of which he produced, besides some unimportant chronicles, two large works of abiding interest and value— La general y natural Historia de las Indias and Quincuagenas de los Notables de Espana. He died at Valladolid in 1557....