Asturian Monuments

Recently, I made a short weekend trip to Oviedo (I live in Cantabria province, which borders Asturias). Visiting one of the World Heritage Sites close to home (and with not-so-many reviews) inspired me to write a review so here it is:

Visit to the WHS

1. Cámara Santa

   First, we visited the town centre, walking along some of the streets. This way, we saw several buildings such as the Teatro Campoamor (where the Princess of Asturias Awards are given) and the cathedral, which is part of the "Routes of Santiago de Compostela" WHS. The cathedral itself is nice but not necessarily the most impressive cathedral in the north of Spain. However, it does house the Cámara Santa, one of the components of this WHS.

   The main reason for its inclusion is that it houses several treasures form the Kingdom of Asturias. Most notable among these is the Victory Cross (Cruz de la Victoria), which today appears in Asturias' flag. It is said to be the cross carried by Pelayo when he and his forces defeated the Umayyads in the battle of Covadonga (722). This battle is the main reason the Umayyads didn't conquer the entirety of the Iberian Peninsula and marks the start of the Kingdom of Asturias. This battle is thus also regarded in Spain as the closest thing we have to a sort of "foundational myth", since the Kingdom of Asturias would eventually become the Kingdom of Castile; and the …

For me, the Visigoths were a short lived episode of late antiquity, an afterthought of the Roman Empire that faded away quickly. In reality, they ruled Spain for 250 years, before being swept away by the Muslim conquests. Almost swept away, I have to write, as Asturia, a mountainous region in Northern Spain remained independent under a Visigoth ruler, Pelayo.

There are different versions of what happened and the circumstances thereof. In the myth, he rebelled, there was a battle against the Arab overlords and he won. Or he simply didn't lose. Looking at the territory of Northern Spain, I think the mounted Arabs had a hard time. The mountains and hills don't seem to be suited for a cavalry based army, but great for guerrilla warfare.

Pelayo's small kingdom would form the nucleus for the kingdom of Asturias, which would grow over the centuries, eventually to form Spain via union with Castille. To this day the king of Spain claims descendance from this local Visigoth noble.

The buildings included in the site date from the 9th century. By then, the kingdom was firmly established and the Muslim onslaught stopped. They are small in size compared to what came before (Romans) or comes later (high middle ages), but comparable to what you see in the Carolingian empire.

I managed to see four components:

• Church of Santa María del Naranco (a former palace).
• Church of San Miguel de Lillo
• The Cámara Santa
…

I visited all the 6 sites of this WHS in June 2016. I stayed for 2 nights in a hotel near Monte Naranco. The first day I visited Santa Maria del Naranco, San Miguel de Lillo and Santa Cristina de Lena. The first two can only be visited with a guided visit in Spanish and tickets can be bought at Santa Maria del Naranco. Next to these two sites there is a small information centre as these are the most visited sites being quite close to Oviedo by car/public transport. Plan ahead not to visit on Mondays as pretty much everything would be closed. Santa Maria del Naranco is mostly famous for its peculiar architecture as well as for the unique engravings and sculpted capitels. San Miguel de Lillo has a few mural painting left although most of it is damaged due to humidity and sunlight. Photography is not allowed inside this church. Don't expect elaborate paintings as these sites are quite old. Make sure to pay attention to the beautifully carved walls on the sides of the entrance which can be appreciated just before exiting as when the second door is opened for people to go out, the sunlight reveals the great detail. Next I drove just outside Pola de Lena to visit Santa Cristina de Lena. Make sure to have a GPS or else follow the signs which direct you off the highway through Lena proper. This church has the best natural setting and panorama once you arrive …

At the start of my trip around northern Spain I based myself in Oviedo, to enable me to see a bit of Asturian countryside and also the bulk of the sites in this inscription.

My first stop was to walk up to the sites at Monte Naranco overlooking the city. I was surprised by how small the monuments actually were; there was not a huge amount of room especially inside San Miguel de Lillo. The architecture was impressive in an understated, almost crude kind of way, and there were lovely sculpted detailing in the former palace of Santa Maria. The two sites were surrounded by nice green pastures and afforded wonderful views over Oviedo, especially down to Santiago Calatrava’s striking new conference centre. They are about 3km west of the station and uphill, it took me about 35 minutes to walk there from the station but Bus 10 is probably a better option for those that don’t fancy a bit of a hike. When I visited tours were given in Spanish, but I found it fairly easy to understand the gist as I had done a bit of background reading.

I walked back down into the city, accompanied by the sound of clunking cowbells in the nearby pastures and bagpipes at a local wedding. I didn’t make it down in time to see any of the interiors of the inscribed sites but did enjoy walking around and people watching on the streets of the charming old town. The Camara Santa …

During two days in Oviedo I managed to visit all 6 WHSs.

The Camara Santa (inside the cathedral) contains valuable jewel encrusted relics.

The Foncalada is an ancient spring located in a niche beneath a busy road junction.

St Julian de los Prades church, 1200 years old contains well-preserved frescoes. I reached it by bus #2 from the city centre.

Sta Christina's church I reached from La Cobertoria railway station where nearby there is a signboard showing several paths leading up to the church, some steeper than others.

San Miguel and Sta Maria churches on Monte Naranco I reached by bus #10 to the Cruces car park, from where there are walking tracks to the respective churches.

I had chosen "Oviedo" as the short title for this WHS, but digging more into the subject of this nomination I realized that that is misleading. The City of Oviedo isn't on the World Heritage List, although Spain tried it in 1998. It got rejected: "ICOMOS does not consider the historic centre of Oviedo per se to be of World Heritage quality". This WHS is all about a few surviving 9th-century monuments, the best examples of the Asturian pre-Romanesque architecture.

The original nomination (dating from 1985) highlighted 3 churches: Santa María del Naranco, San Miguel de Lillo and Santa Cristina de Lena. The first two are located in Naranco, a few km north of Oviedo, while the latter is in Lena (about 35km south). Lena is where I started my rounds. It’s a tiny, poor-looking village in the middle of the quintessential Asturian landscape with mountain peaks all around and lots of trees. The church is signposted from the main road, and there are 2 parking lots.

I first tried an approach from parking lot #1, but that’s a very steep climb. The second way of access was more to my liking: a wonderful path through the fields. Locals use it to walk their dogs or jog.

The church has a great location on top of the hill. It is open to visitors for a small fee, except on Mondays. And I was visiting on a Monday -- so I just admired its robust exterior, took a …