Galician literature

Galician literature is a literary tradition written in the Galician language, a Romance language closely related to Portuguese. Historically, Galician was the language of courtly lyric in Castile until around 1400, but it declined and was replaced by Castilian Spanish as the official language of Galicia in 1500.12

A revival of Galician literature began in the 19th century, marked by the "floral games" (poetry congresses) of 1861 and the publication of the first Galician dictionary and grammar. Rosalía de Castro is considered the greatest name in Galician literature, with her work Cantares gallegos (1863) being a significant revival of the language as a literary medium. The 20th century has seen a continued production of Galician poetry, reinforcing the connection between the literature and the regional language.34