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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Asturias does its own thing
When the Moors swamped Visogothic Spain in
the early eighth century only one resilient enclave,
Asturias, held out. Here, a distinctive pre-Romanesque
architecture took shape between the eighth and tenth
centuries, one that was mindful of both classical and
Visigothic design but which also pushed structural
innovation to new heights. Barrel-vaulted ceilings
supported by buttresses became de rigueur on new
stone buildings. Small windows and arches were also
typical, features that would become commonplace in
the Romanesque period.The style survives best in a
dozen or so ecclesiastical buildings, where the simple
straight lines of the basilica ground plan (central nave
with an aisle on either side) set the churchy tone
for centuries to come.The structures that survive are
clustered in and around Oviedo, where Asturias’ halcyon
period came in two waves.The first, under
King Alfonso II, saw court architectTioda design
churches like San Julián de los Prados (built c.830). A
second period of growth under Ramiro I used grander
proportions. As vaulted naves got higher, so supporting
buttresses grew beefier.The Palacio de Santa María del
Naranco, built as a lavish, two-storey banqueting hall
circa 848, with Romanesque columns, arches and
vaulting, was the apotheosis of Asturian architecture.
Moorish architecture in Spain
OK, so maybe they borrowed the horseshoe arch from
the Visigoths – who can say for certain – and, in truth,
bar the odd two-tier arch, patio or ribbed vault, they
weren’t radical innovators in terms of structure, but who
would argue against the decorative beauty of Moorish
architecture in Spain? It was all about interior design.
Did Asturias direct
European architecture?
Did Romanesque
architecture, and with
it the monumental
ecclesiastical buildings
of the High Middle Ages,
begin in Asturias? Was
this a rare example of
Spanish architecture
taking the lead, goading
the rest of Europe into a
style that would become
Romanesque proper?
Scholars say maybe. No
one is certain whether
Asturias influenced the
Carolingians in France
(where Romanesque
flourished) or vice versa.
The Camino de Santiago,
already a well-beaten
path of pilgrimage out
to Galicia by the tenth
century, no doubt
provided something
of an ideas highway
between Asturias and
France.
