Spain Guide
Cantabria and Asturias
Santa María del Naranco
Address: 3km above the city
Opening time: April– Sept Mon & Sun 9.30am–1pm, Tues– Sat 9.30am–1.30pm & 3.30–7.30pm; Oct– March Mon 10am–12.30pm, Tues– Sat 10am–12.30pm & 3–4pm, Sun 10am–1pm
Price: €3 guided tour in Spanish
The greatest Asturian church, indeed the architectural gem of the principality, is Santa María del Naranco. Majestically located high on a wooded slope, it's 45-minutes' walk from the station through the quiet suburb of Ciudad Naranco, slowly climbing the slopes of the eponymously named Monte.
The initial glimpses of the warm stone and simple bold outline, in perfect harmony with its surroundings, led Jan Morris to describe it as "formidable beyond its scale", but while it retains the ability to impress, the effect is somewhat lessened by the huge tour groups that descend upon it in summer. Originally designed as a palatial hunting lodge for Ramiro I (842–52), Alfonso's successor, it was converted into a church at the end of the ninth century. Architecturally, the open porticoes at both ends predate later innovations in Byzantine churches, while thirty or so distinctive decorative medallions skirt the roof.
A couple of hundred metres beyond Santa María is King Ramiro's palace chapel, San Miguel de Lillo (same hours and ticket), built with soft golden sandstone and red tiles. Though generally assumed to be by the same architect as Santa María – Tiodo – its design is quite different. In fact, less than half of the original ninth-century church remains, the rest having been swept away by a landslide and clumsily rebuilt in the thirteenth century. The altar sits in Santa María del Naranco, and much of the interior sculpture has been removed to the Museo Arqueológico, but look for the window grilles carved from single slabs of limestone, and the superb Byzantine-style carved door frames depicting, incongruously enough, the investiture of a Roman consul, complete with circus-style festivities.