The Visigothic Kingdom was a kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the fifth to the eighth centuries AD. One of the Germanic successor states to the Western Roman Empire, it was originally created by the settlement of the Visigoths under King Wallia in the province of Aquitaine in southwest France by the Roman government and then extended by conquest over all of the Iberian Peninsula. The Kingdom maintained independence from the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, the attempts of which to re-establish Roman authority in Iberia were only partially successful and short-lived. By the early sixth century, the Kingdom's territory in Gaul had been lost to the Franks, save the narrow coastal strip of Septimania, but the Visigoth control of Iberia was secured by the end of that century with the submission of the Suebi and the Basques. The ethnic distinction between the indigenous Hispano-Roman population and the Visigoths had largely disappeared by this time (the Gothic language lost its last and probably already declining function as a church language when the Visigoths converted to Catholicism in 589). Liber Iudiciorum (completed in 654) abolished the old tradition of having different laws for Romans and for Visigoths. Most of the Visigothic Kingdom was conquered by Islamic troops from Morocco in 711 AD, with only the northern reaches of Spain remaining in Christian hands. These gave birth to the medieval Kingdom of Asturias when a local landlord called Pelayo, most likely of Gothic origin, was elected Princeps by the Astures.
San Pedro de la Nave ("St. Peter of the Nave") is a Visigothic church in the town of Campillo, in the municipal unit of San Pedro de la Nave-Almendra, in the province of Zamora, Spain. It was declared a national monument on April 22, 1912.
The church foundation goes back to the reign of Ergica in the seventh century, having been built between 680 and before the Muslim conquest of Hispania in 711; San Pedro de la Nave is thus one of the last works of Visigothic architecture.
Originally the church was sited on the banks of the river Esla, but, when the Ricobayo dam was built, it was moved to avoid submersion in the higher waters of the Esla. Thanks to the efforts of Manuel Gómez-Moreno, it was decided that the church would be moved stone by stone to its current location. This operation was carried out in 1930-32, under the direction of the architect Alejandro Ferrant Vázquez.
The church's first design corresponded to a Roman cross in plan, although later two lateral naves were added, which gave it a hybrid shape between basilical and cruciform. It also has five rooms, two on each side of the Presbytery, that must have served as hermits' cells. In sum a rectangular plan of approximately 5.6 by 2.1 meters is established, from which eight chapels project: the rectangular central apsidal chapel and two others at the ends of the transept. The central nave, as is usually the case, is taller and wider than the aisles and is separated from them by arches supported by strong pillars.