Asturian Architecture: Royal Influence & Pre-Romanesque Style
Asturian Architecture
The architecture was driven by the Kings.
Characteristics
- Prevalence of the basilica form.
- Curvilinear and volumetric designs.
- Emphasis on line, masonry, and blocks.
- Tall buildings with arched vaults, transverse arches, or ribs (prelude to Romanesque).
- Arches resting on attached columns, linked by arcs (Romanesque influence).
- External buttresses.
- Horseshoe arches, sometimes decorative or supportive.
- Fluted columns, Corinthian capitals (vertical or helical), tapered and double inverted.
- Rope decoration (Roman influence).
Reign of Alfonso II (793-842)
Santa Cámara
- Two aisles.
San Pedro de Nora
Similar to Julián de los Prados, it is the largest Asturian church, with some Romanesque influence in the volume of its pillars and pictorial decoration. It has three naves, the central one wider, ending in a tripartite head with a straight bottom (typical Asturian style). It also features a transept equal in width to the naves, converted into a crossing with two smaller side spaces and a porch. Above the altar is a small room with a window, likely for a monk, known as the clerestory, also typical of Asturian architecture. It is a basilica with three naves separated by square pillars supporting arches and a transept with a radial rate. The iconostasis, separating the clergy area, resembles a triumphal arch. The temple’s grandeur and originality depart from Visigothic models. Its most striking feature is its pictorial decoration, frescoed (or more accurately, stuccoed) in three superimposed, aniconic layers, with clear Roman influence in the architectural decoration. It was likely a monastic church rather than a palatial one, although it had a platform in the transept reserved for the king.
Reign of Ramiro I (842-850)
The peak of Asturian architecture.
Santa María del Naranco
The ground floor has a large central body covered with a barrel vault and tour arches resting directly on the wall, similar to the lower chapel of the Cámara Santa de Oviedo in Oviedo Cathedral. It was probably a palatine chapel, although some speculate it was an audience chamber, based on the bench running along the walls. It is flanked by two side chambers with wooden roofs. The east side chamber connects to the central body and may have had bathroom functions or served as a cistern. The west side is only accessible from the outside, its function unknown, possibly a guardroom. The main floor has a similar layout to the ground floor. The large central hall is rectangular and covered by a barrel vault flanked by six arches supported by corbels. It is surrounded on the larger sides by blind arches resting on twin columns with Celtic-style rope moldings. It is flanked by two viewpoints or covered spaces with vaults. External buttresses correspond to the interior arches. On the short sides, the facade is divided into three levels, corresponding to the main floor, which opens to the outside through three stilted arches. This same pattern, on a much smaller scale, is repeated above, forming two chambers with inaccessible windows of unknown purpose. The primary material is ashlar, common in Asturian art. The result is a tall, elegant building, modulated by the symmetry of the buttresses and the grace of its stilted arches. Some construction and decorative solutions, such as barrel vaults, arches, exterior buttresses, and the subordination of sculptural decoration to architecture, are a clear advance towards Romanesque style. In addition to rope-molded shafts and capitals, there are animal decorations, repeated in thirty-two medallions in the spandrels of the arches, depicting birds, animals, horses, and horsemen in combat. The medallions are found both inside and outside the building, at the bottom of pilasters or as long, ridged bands on the outside and short ones under the brackets supporting the internal arches.
San Miguel de Lillo
Probably by the same architect, it was undoubtedly the palace chapel. Only the façade remains, with a splendid display of cubic volumes. Its central plan, divided into three naves, is adapted to a basilica imitation.
Reign of Alfonso III (866-910)
Santa Cristina de Lena
The work of an imitator of the previous styles. It is unique for having a tripartite apse separated by a perforated stone iconostasis like a lattice. This effect is reinforced by three arches, with perforated spandrels supporting a perforated wall that does not reach the ceiling. Its square cruciform character defines the chancel, two aisles, and a porch.