The churches of Alphonse the Third
The last Pre Romanesque Asturian churches, St. Adriano de Tuñon, Santiago de Gobiendes, St. Salvador de Priesca and St. Salvador de Valdediós, built during the reign of Alphonse the Third, the Great, (866-910), follow the customary strucutre of the Asturian Pre Romanesque art: basilical plan of three naves, three rectangular apses and flat sidewall. On this trip we shall visit all four and after we will know the only Mozarabic church supported by this monarch, where we will notice that although the same structure was kept on its plan, the influx of the Mozarabic spirit turns it into a monument very different than the previous ones.
Mapa del viaje
Guía del viaje
Día 1
Church with basilical plan, with three naves with four sections each, separated by semicircular arches upon square pillars, covered in wood with flat tripartite chevet, although only remnants remain from the central chapel. It has little wreathed decoration and geometrical motifs of poor quality. It represents a kind of rural church of the period of Alphonse the Third.
Although
it was consecrated in 921, due to its characteristics it is considered to
belong to the period of Alphonse the Third. It has a basilical plan with three
naves with three separated sections by semicircular arches in brick upon square
pillars, with flat tripartite chevet; the central chapel somwehat higher with
enclosed round of arches upon columns with capitals and rest of paintings.
Built by Alphonse the Third for his retirement, it was consecrated in 893. It has a basilical plan with three naves covered by a barrel vault of four sections separated by semicircular arches upon square pillars, with a flat tripartite chevet; the central chapel somewhat higher; a stand over the lobby and the central portico. Windows wth dry cap and rests of paintings inside. It is one of the most interesting buildings in Spanish Pre Romanesque.
Día 2
A small three nave basilic with three apses for a convent founded by Alphonse the Third in 891. The naves are separated by four semicircular arches upon pillars without imposts. The naves are covered with a wooden roof and the chapels of the apses by a barrel vault.
Built by monks that came from Cordova, it is one of the most interesting churches of the Mozarabic period. It has three naves separated by horseshoe arches upon columns and capitals with a crossing with the same width as the naves, separtated from them by an iconostasis, also of horseshoe arches upon columns, and three apses with a horseshoe shaped plan inscribed in a square, being the central one larger in size than the lateral ones.