San Julián de los Prados

San Julián de los Prados, west facade with porch

East facade

San Julián de los Prados , also known as Santullano , is a pre-Romanesque church from the early 9th century. It stands on the northwest outskirts of Oviedo , the capital of the Spanish autonomous community of Asturias . In 1917 the church was declared a Monumento Nacional (Protected Cultural Property ) and in 1998 together with the Cámara Santa of the Cathedral of San Salvador and the La Foncalada fountain house in Oviedo as Monumentos de Oviedo y del Reino de Asturias (Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of Asturias) List of UNESCO cultural monuments included, in which the Asturian churches of Santa María del Naranco , San Miguel de Lillo and Santa Cristina de Lena have been recorded since 1985 .

history

The Church of San Julián de los Prados is dated to the reign of the Asturian King Alfonso II (r. 783 and 791-842), the chaste. The exact date the church was built is not known. In chronicles of the late 9th century, the Crónica Rotense from around 883 and the Crónica ad Sebastianum from around 885 , it is mentioned that Alfonso II had a church in honor of the Egyptian martyrs Julian and himself at some distance from his palace outside the city Mrs. Basilissa had it built. The name San Julián de los Prados (Saint Julian in the Meadows) is an indication that the church was built in the open field, outside the city wall.

architecture

Window of the north side apse with original stucco transenna

The church is built from smaller stones stacked horizontally and joined with mortar . Buttresses and corners are reinforced with ashlar . The building was plastered both inside and out. In some places it can still be seen that joints were originally scratched on the external plaster, which were supposed to simulate brickwork.

San Julián de los Prados is a three-aisled pillar basilica with a vestibule to the west, which you enter through an open arched portal and from which you can access the central nave via a lockable door. Another door on the north side of the nave led directly into the north aisle. The transept was also originally accessible from the outside through a door on the south side, and probably also on the north side.

The main aisles and aisles are separated by arched triple arcades that rest on pillars with warrior capitals. A triumphal arch opens to the unusually high and wide transept, which is eleven meters high and towers over the nave by two meters .

In the east, three rectangular join the transept apses , which one of brick masonry vault own and the only vaulted space parts. The barrel vault of the central apse rests on blind arcades . Columns and capitals are reused and date from the late Roman period . On the front wall of the central apse there is a gable aedicle . As in other pre-Romanesque churches, in San Julián de los Prados there is a room above the central apse, a so-called cámara oculta (hidden chamber), which is only accessible from the outside through the triple window on the upper floor of the central apse.

The nave has an oak ceiling. The upper clad windows are rectangular and some of them still have original wooden lintels . The windows of the transept arms and the apses are also rectangular, with the exception of the large window opening on the upper floor of the central apse, formed from a three-arcade with two columns and capitals. The window grilles were replaced during the renovation from 1912 to 1915. Only the window of the north apse has retained its original transenna with its petal-shaped perforated stucco . An unusually large arched window with a height of over four meters is built into the front wall of the south transept; in the north transept it was bricked up again before the interior was painted.

In the north and south of the transept there are two extensions or sacristies which, like the western vestibule, protrude from the almost rectangular floor plan of the church.

Sculpture jewelry

Are located at the entrance pillars to the central apse relief panels of marble , which also are ancient and perhaps in the 8th century on a previous building of the Cathedral of Oviedo were created. Rosettes , hexagons and octagons with plant motifs are shown on these plates . The upper part of the plates is designed like a capital with two three-dimensional rows of leaves and a tendril strip with flower buds above them like an abacus .

Murals

Interior with wall paintings, view from the transept into the apses

The wall paintings of San Julián de los Prados date back to the time the church was built and are dated between 812 and 842. Originally all interior walls and vaults were painted. They were done al fresco , with the paint being applied to the still damp plaster. The lines that were scratched into the soft layer of plaster and that should separate the different colored areas from each other are clearly visible. The image program in the nave can be divided into three areas. In the lower area, the base zone, there are marble imitations. In the zone above, buildings, perhaps churches, are depicted with corner towers and arcades, columns and capitals, with gables and curtains in front of the window openings. Palaces are depicted in the upper zone. There are no images of people.

The only Christian symbol to be found is the cross . It is depicted four times, in the transept and in the nave, under painted arches decorated with ovals and circles, which rest on pillars with capitals, which are also painted. The cross is decorated with ovals, squares and circles, which are reminiscent of precious stones and identify it as a gem cross . The Greek letters alpha and omega hang on chains from the cross arms , referring to God the Father as the first, the beginning, and the Son of God as the last, the end. The images on the arms of the cross, in the extension of the chains, are perhaps to be interpreted as goblets with licking flames. At the foot of the cross, two smaller buildings can be seen on either side, with curtains in their open arcades. The buildings are supposed to symbolize the cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem and the depicted cross is supposed to refer to the True Cross , which, according to legend, was discovered by St. Helena , mother of Emperor Constantine the Great . The vaults of the apses take up the geometric motifs of the relief panels on the pillars of the central apse and are painted with circles, squares, hexagons and octagons.

literature

• Achim Arbeiter , Sabine Noack-Haley: Hispania antiqua. Christian monuments of the early Middle Ages from the 8th to the 11th centuries . Verlag Philipp von Zabern , Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2312-3 , pp. 116-132.
• Jaime Cobreros: Guía del Prerrománico en España . Madrid 2006, ISBN 84-9776-215-0 , pp. 97-101.
• Jacques Fontaine: L'Art Préroman Hispanique . Volume 1, 2nd edition, Éditions Zodiaque, Abbaye de la Pierre-Qui-Vire 1973.
• Lorenzo Arias Páramo: Guía del Arte Prerrománico Asturiano . 2nd edition, Gijón 1999, ISBN 84-95178-20-6 , pp. 15-31.
• Wolfgang Schöller: San Julián de los Prados (Oviedo) and Kornelimünster. Transfer of plans in Carolingian times . In: Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch. West German Yearbook for Art History, 57, 1996, pp. 11–33.

Web links

Commons : San Julián de los Prados  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of the Asturias Unesco World Heritage List

Coordinates: 43 ° 22 '3.7 "  N , 5 ° 50' 14.1"  W.