In lands of Fernán González
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Día 1
It is a three nave basilic with a complex rectangular chevet, built in the 6th century upon a Roman mausoleum of the old metropolis of Tricio the Great, therefore the chevet is facing west. Fragments of huge Corynthian columns were used, upon which Visigothic horseshoe arches in sinter were added.
This small monastic church, protecting a cave monastery of the 6th century, is formed by two naves, something quite unique in Spain; two apses and a portico attached to the mountain. Due to several setbacks we find in it Visigothic, Mozarabic and Early Romanesque remnants. This monastery, declared World Heritage, was the see of an important scriptorium, origin of the first very early writings in Spanish in the 10th century.
Día 2
Building with a single nave with a narrower square apse that was later replaced by the present one. It amazes for its two high twin windows with horseshoe arches upon imposts and also for some no less surprising capitals preserved inside, bevelled, properly included in Visigothic sculpture, but also containing some heads with more relief. It was possibly a civil building turned later into a church.
To 20km of Burgos we find this hermitage which origin seems to be early Christian, reconstructed possibly in the first repopulation of this zone, in times of Alfonso III the Great one, since in spite of a series of important modificacines that suffered in the first times of Romanesque art in Spain and in the 18th century it preserves multiple details that demonstrate his great relation with the Asturian architecture.
It is possibly the last Visigothic monument we know. With cruciform plan with three naves, the lateral one with chambers, crossing nave and an apse, is similar to St. Pedro de la Nave, although here the crossing is next to the apse. Only the chevet has survived with an excellent decoration in the main arch and three friezes along its outside.
Día 3
This tower is located in Covarrubias. It is the only military stronghold preserved from that period. It is so called after Doña Urraca, grand daughter of Fernán González, who was sovereign abbess of the Monastery of St. Cosme and St. Damián in Covarrubias. Formed by three bodies, the first one possibly of Roman origin, with walls up to 3 m wide. The second one has a horseshoe door at many metres from the floor, and the last one, rebuilt in a later period, with windows and buttresses.
Located in Barriosuso, near Covarrubias, it already appears in a diploma from 924; after that, a Romanesque portico was attached to it. It has a single nave of 9 by 5m with a wooden cover and a square apse of 2 by 2m that has a cruciform window formed by five rings and covered with a semicircular dome, separated by a horseshoe arch. Part of its decoration recalls Quintanilla’s.
It is the most extraordinary building in all Mozarabic. Its outside is very simple, its inside, amazing: a nave with a central palm tree from which eight arches stem out that support the vault, the apse on the eastern side and a “small mosque” on the western half with five vaulted naves upon horseshoe arches that support the choir with another small apse in it; all decorated with a magnificent set of paintings.