elsewhereonline.com.au

In 584 the Visigoths eliminated the kingdom of the Sueves, another Germanic people who had occupied North-western Spain. When the Visigoths chose to abandon their Arian heresy and adopt orthodox Christianity in 589, they removed a crucial barrier to their integration with the much more numerous Hispano-Roman population. Despite a chronic inability to maintain a single dynasty on the throne for more than two generations, there was no reason to suppose on the eve of the Muslim invasion in 711 that the Visigothic kingdom would collapse in such a sudden and dramatic fashion. The end of Visigothic Spain as a political entity did not mean the end of its culture. SANTA MARIA DE QUINTANILLA DE LAS VINAS. The original church was a substantial building, in the style of a Latin cross, with a nave and two side aisles. Its extant remains are the chancel and transept, built from well-worked stone. Running along the exterior are two bands of frieze-like decoration with stars, leaves, trees, bunches of grapes and birds. A short third band, on the east wall of the chancel, adds some stylised animals to the range of images. Inside the church, the chancel arch carries similar decoration to the outside bands. Its supporting columns have figured capitals with images of the sun and the moon supported by flying angels. Above the representation of the sun is a dedicatory inscription. There are some displaced carvings , possibly representing the Evangelists. Assigning a chronology to the dating is generally accepted. SANTA MARIA DE NARANCO. This remarkable building, and the associated San Miguel de Lillo, are located on the slopes on Monte Naranco, some 4 kilometres to the north of Oviedo. They are among the finest survivals of architecture from the kingdom of the Asturias, the first independent Christian polity to emerge after the Muslim conquest. Representing itself as the heir of Visigothic Spain, the Asturian kingdom’s architecture displays continuity with earlier artistic traditions, startling originality and a readiness to adopt external influences. Santa Maria de Naranco is a rectangular hall, with an arcaded loggia at either end, built over a barrel-vaulted lower storey. Entrance to the centre of the hall is by a staircase on the northern side. There is elaborate external and internal decoration, with figured capitals and carved medallions. Asturian chronicles associate the building with King Ramiro I (842-850). A stone altar placed in the eastern loggia records the restoration of the church of Santa Maria by Ramiro It now seems that the altar was brought from elsewhere, probably from the nearby church now dedicated to San Miguel, which suffered a disastrous collapse of its eastern end in the early middle ages. The building was, therefore, not built as a church but rather as a belvedere or elaborate hunting lodge. SAN MIGUEL DE LILLO Located around 300 metres to the west of Santa Maria de Naranco, the church of San Miguel de Lillo survives in a severely truncated form. A large west front overshadows a small, plain chancel. The original crossing and chancel seem to have collapsed at an early date. They were replaced in the later middle ages by the present humbler construction and the church was dedicated to the Archangel Michael. The windows of the older west front are noteworthy. The interior is impressive with its narrow aisles and high roof. The interior decoration has a small section of fresco painting in the south-west bay and remarkable door jambs with carvings of a Roman consul presiding over events in the arena. (Text Dr John Wreglesworth: Photographs Christopher Wood)