SANTIANES DE PRAVIA

King Silo (774-783) was the husband of Adosina, who was Froila
the First’s sister and who died prematurely when his son Alphonse was still too
young to succeed. He was elevated to the throne despite the opposition of an
important part of the court of Cangas de Onís. Probably because of that and also
for the convenience to better locate the capital, centred in the kingdom’s
teritory, that included Galicia already, he moved the court to Pravia, the old
Roman Flavium Avia where he built a set of palaces and a church dedicated to San
Juan Apóstol y Evangelista that also seems to have been used as a royal
pantheon.

We find references to this church in the chronicles of the times of Alphonse the
Third, and a description of its state at the beginnings of the seventeenth
century have reached us to day. The sponsorship of this
church was stated in a funny acrostic, destroyed in the seventeenth century
where the phrase “SILO PRINCEPS FECIT” could be read in a thousand different
ways, and that it became a monastery at the death of the monarch. Later it went
through several transformations, the first one of them in 1637, where the
complete chevet was replaced, and several others in the nineteenth century, when
the crossing was enlarged and the western façade was replaced as well. Very few
remains of the original construction remained standing at the beginning of the
twentieth century. These consisted of some masonry walls and two brick arches at
each side of the central nave, upon pillars with bases and imposts decorated
with layered fillets. At those times it was studied by Fortunato Selgas, who
suggested a probable original structure, and it was investigated between 1975
and 1980 and rebuilt under the supervision of José Menéndez Pidal.

.

The end result after so many transformations shows us a church of a basilical

plan with three naves. The central one twice wider than the aisles and separated

from these by a series of three round arches, plastered in brick upon square

section pillars with a transept somewhat wider than the naves, also divided in

three separated areas by large round arches, the three rectangular plan apses built in the seventeenth century, being the

southern one a bit wider than that side of the new transept and a portico also

divided in three parts, which central one was used as a royal pantheon, and a

tribune upon it. But if we bear in mind the description of the jesuit Luis

Alfonso de Carvallo at the beginnings of the seventeenth century and the

information obtained from the excavations at the end of the twentieth century,

it is unquestionable that there are far too many reasons to believe that there

are big differences between one construction, maybe excessively inspired in the

churches known of Alphonse the Second’s period, half a century later, and its

original structure.

.

Whilst Carvallo described a tripartite chevet though with semicircular apses,

only the central one was found in the excavations, which is in fact of the semicircular type, somewhat canted, which location is

marked on the floor of the present one. It has been also proven that the

original transept was of the same width than the naves, as a continuation of

those, so its original plan was most probably formed by a rectangle of almost 25

m long by 13 m wide, divided in six spaces, formed by the three naves; the

central one twice the width of the aisles, and a crossing a bit narrower than

the main nave, also tripartite, plus a semicircular canted apse as a

continuation of the main nave, and a portico, used as a mausoleum of a slightly

lower width than the main nave. On the other hand, all the church was covered

with wooden roof, except the apse that was probably covered with a porous stone

vault, according to the remains found in the last excavations.

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Another concept to bear in mind is that all the decoration found is of clear Visigothic influence. The one that was present in churches at

the end of the eighteenth century, that today we can find in Cudillero, of a

difficult to justify shape, as a great part of the one that appeared in the last

excavations. Both the altar formed by a stone plaque upon a strong octogonal

pillar, as well as the innerdoors with chiseled decoration on secant circles and

friezes with vegetal decorations, as the remains of a window formed by two horse

shoe arches framed by a sort of alfiz and leaning upon columns, or the little

horseshoe shaped windows that are still preserved in the lateral walls, lead us

to think that there are too many Visigothic elements for a church rebuilt with a

clear thought on a later period.

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But it is still more surprising the existence of a baptismal font at the feet of

the southern nave that was found during the latest excavations of Menéndez Pidal. It is a

baptistry of the so called immersion baptistries chiseled on a block of

sandstone of 60 cm by side and 30 cm deep that, due to its location in the most

isolated area of the church, and probably with a direct entrance from the

outside, seems to correspond to a Christian rite much older than Silo’s times,

who did not allow the neophyte its access to the cult until after being

baptized. We have to point out also the fact that the chevet’s floor, the naves

and the baptistry are at different levels, having kept a part of the original

one around the baptismal pool, and another one in the baptistry built in Opus

Signinum in red, alternating with black pebbles, quite usual in Roman

architecture. .

According to what we have mentioned above, and starting from the point that both

Silo’s acrostic as well as the codex of that period back up that the church was built by Silo

and his wife Adosinda around 780. We find a series of reliable elements that

relate it with the preceeding Spanish architecture as well as with the Asturian

art, especiallly with those of Alphonse the Second and Alphonse the Third’s

reigns:

• 
  

  The semicircular canted apse is very similar to the Basilic of
  
  Veranes, at 50 Km from Pravia, and considered to have been built in the fifth or
  
  sixth century, razonable plantearnosbecause of its shape and for the presence of exterior buttresses. Considering
  
  that both are located in two communities of Roman Spain origin, that were
  
  inhabited in the Visigothic period, it seems reasonable to think that
  
  constructions that previously existed in the area may have had an influence in
  
  the initial design of Santianes, of which Veranes is a good example. Apses of
  
  this type are also found in previous Spanish churches, like San Bou in Menorca
  
  (fifth century), Aljezares in Murcia (sixth century) or Recópolis in Guadalajara
  
  (sixth century).

  
  


• 
  

  The immersion baptismal font, a system that was not been used
  
  in Spain since the sixth century, recalls the existing ones in churches in the
  
  peninsula in the fifth and sixth centuries, like San Pedro de Alcántara in
  
  Málaga (sixth century), Idanha a Velha in Portugal (sixth century) or Aljezares,
  
  and in some basilics in the Balearic Islands although in Santianes it is less
  
  deep and there are not the usual seven steps: three to descend; the central one,
  
  and three to ascend, according to the description of San Isidoro.

  
  


• 
  

  The type of floor found, of a clear Roman or Paleochristian
  
  origin has not been utilized in the rest of the known Astur architecture.

  
  


• 
  

  All the decoration found both in the church in the nineteenth
  
  century as well as in later excavations that conform an undoubtly Visigothic
  
  complex.

  
  


• 
  

  The remains of the central nave that have been preserved, which
  
  are proven to have   been built by that king, state a
  
  clear precedent of the late Astur architecture, at least in the structure of its
  
  naves, but the square pillars are not new in Spanish Pre-Romanesque
  
  architecture, with precedents in different periods, as the already mentioned of
  
  Son Bou and Aljezares or San Pedro de
  
  la Nave in Zamora (seventh century). The round arches in brick were
  
  also quite usual in Roman architecture in Spain, and it is possible that there
  
  had been constructions with this type of arches in the surroundings of Pravia,
  
  for example, in Veranes or in the Flavium Avia, as it seems that the palace
  
  complex of Silo was built upon an ancient Roman town..

  
  


• The remains of the central nave that have been preserved, which are proven to
  
  have  been built by that king, state a
  
  clear precedent of the late Astur architecture, at least in the structure of its
  
  naves, but the square pillars are not new in Spanish Pre-Romanesque
  
  architecture, with precedents in different periods, as the already mentioned of
  
  Son Bou and Aljezares or San Pedro de
  
  la Nave in Zamora (seventh century). The round arches in brick were
  
  also quite usual in Roman architecture in Spain, and it is possible that there
  
  had been constructions with this type of arches in the surroundings of Pravia,
  
  for example, in Veranes or in the Flavium Avia, as it seems that the palace
  
  complex of Silo was built upon an ancient Roman town.


• 
  
  
  


• The rest of what has been found in it, like the present chevet and crosings, the
  
  western façade and its tribune and all the elevations of the church, including
  
  its presept covering, are later reconstructions which we may consider more or
  
  less adequate but its original structure is not guaranteed, since they do not
  
  provide reliable information regarding its original state and it may probably
  
  generate a wrong idea.
  
  

  
  

All that has been said confirms Santianes de Pravia as a basic link at the
moment of studying the origins of the Asturian art, about which so much has
beeen speculated. To do that it is very important to bear in mind the time it
was built, a few years later than Carlomagno came to the
throne (771) and  much earlier than the empire and Carolingian art existed, as well as the
lack of communication in those times of the Astur kingdom, since until Silo, its
court had been secluded in the mountains in Cangas de Onís. On the other hand,
the existence of the complicated acrostic, added to the clear cultural level of
Beato de Liébana, that in that very reign was writing his “Comments to the
Apocalypse” keeping a theological discussion of great level with Elipando, the
Mozarabic bishop of Toledo, lead us to consider that the Asturian kingdom had
not been kept unaware of the Roman and Visigothic cultural development in the
peninsula. We must also consider that, according to the Chronicles of Sebastian,
already in times of Alphonse the First (739-757), many churches had been built
and restaured, although nothing of them has been preserved, what makes it
unquestionable the continuity of the Visigothic culture in the beginnings of the
Asturian art, which, for the time being, until new findings take place, we can
only analyse in Santianes de Pravia and Veranes. All of these circumstances of
the Asturian kingdom in the times that the church was built, lead us to consider
that the fundamental element that Santianes provides to the late Asturian art,
which consists on the the utilization of round arches upon pillars in the
structure of the naves, must be considered as a leap backwards within the
Hispanic building tradition, rather than attributing it to probable external
influences.

If we start from that base and bear in mind that, as we have
seen, a great amount of the remains preserved from the original construction,
have clear precedents in monuments of different phases of the previous Spanish
art, we reach the conclusion that we are in front of a building that is the
result of the fusion of several heterogeneous elements. In it we find a plan
that recalls the basilic structures of the Paleo-Christian type  paleocristiano, mixed with semicircular casted chevet, three naves with flat roof, portico and
baptistry with independent access from the outside, with so dissimilar elements
like the round arches in brick upon pillars, similar to those used in Roman
architecture; a Visigothic type crossing; the decoration, also Visigothic, that
could have been reutilized or developed for the church according to techniques
and styles that still prevailed, or the utilization of the portico as a royal
mausoleum. All of that makes Santianes de Pravia a clear example of the theory
we have exposed in the introduction of this study, in the sense that eclecticism
is the funadamental characteristic of all Spanish Pre-Romanesque Art, except
during the reigns of Alphonse the Second and Alphonse the Third. In fact this
church is already a clear precedent of the later Asturian art, but it had been
built prior to the times of Alphonse the Second, when the design of this type of
buildings was normalized, utilizing without any prefixed norm both in its
structure as in its decoration, different elements that were already available,
and out of them, only one, although a basic one, was kept as a fixed
characteristic in all the later Asturian art, except in the Ramirense period:
the series of round arches upon square pillars.

It is also to bear in mind in this case the possibility that
what is considered a new contruction of king Silo could have been the
reconstruction of a basilic that already existed from Paleo-Christian times.
Though within the assimilation we propose for Santianes of different previous
architectural elements, the type of construction and the rest of the mentioned
characteristics are prefectly acceptable for a building of the times of king
Silo; the presence of a baptismal immersion font is beyond thinking at the end
of the eighth century. If on top of that we consider that our church stands in
what had been a city of Roman origin that, as Varenes, had been inhabited until
then, and the plan structure, so similar to the remains of the church of
Varenes, it would be quite logical to think that it could have contained a
basilic of a previous period upon which the construction of Silo would have been
erected, keeping a great part of the shape of the plan and of the baptismal
font. But we are afraid that after so many modifications suffered throughout the
centuries it will be very difficult to reach a definite conclusion both on the
subject as well as on the original elevations of this church.

Arte Pre-románico Asturiano: Antonio Bonet Correa
SUMMA ARTIS: Tomo VIII

L’Art Preroman Hispanique: ZODIAQUE
Ars Hispanie: Tomo II

Arte Asturiano: José Manuel Pita Andrade

Santianes de Pravia
Oficina de Turismo de Santianes de Pravia
El Proyecto Veranes
Oscar O. Otero: Autobiografía del Rey Silo.