Albingaunum, the wealthy Roman city along the River Centa, was important because of its position as a gateway to the fertile plains of northern Italy, Gaul, and the Mediterranean.
In the 16th and 17th centuries colonial Catholic missions were established in the Oyón Valley in Peru and built in a style described as Rural Andean Baroque.
Until its independence from the Soviets in 1991, the Abava River valley, a region that developed during the Middle Ages along the route to Germany, had remained immune to the modern age.