Galicia is located in the northwest corner of the Iberian peninsula, just above the north end of Portugal. Today, it is a part of Spain.
Galicia first appears in history in the writings of the ancient Greek and Roman historians and geographers. The modern name derives from the ancient Roman name Gallaecia, which in turn derives from the name of a Celtic people, the Gallaeci, who in ancient times inhabited part of the area.
Spain, and Galicia with it, fell to the Romans before the better-known conquest of Gaul by Julias Caesar, and just as in other Roman-occupied areas, the native Celtic culture declined under the influence of a Romanized ruling elite. That culture received another blow with the decline of Rome, as Galicia was taken over by a Germanic tribe, the Suevi, in the 5th century AD. Little is known about the fate of the original Celtic languages of Galicia in this darkest era of European history. In the 5th and 6th centuries AD, Galicia received a new infusion of Celtic language and culture as the result of the settlement of Celts from Britain who were fleeing the Saxon invasions.
The settlement was smaller than the one which founded Brittany, and the Celtic language spoken there has not survived, but the core area of that Celtic settlement is known today as Bretoña.