San Salvador de Valdediós

overall view

San Salvador de Valdediós (Church of the Redeemer) is a pre-Romanesque church of the Asturian style. It belongs to the municipality of Villaviciosa in the Spanish region of Asturias and is about 40 km from Oviedo . Next to the church is the Cistercian monastery Valdediós .

history

San Salvador de Valdediós, also known as El Conventín (the little monastery), was built as a palace chapel at the end of the 9th century . The year construction began is not documented, but the year 893 is considered the date of the inauguration. The year 931 is engraved on a marble stone, which refers to the era in Spain at that time, the Spanish era , which began 38 years before the birth of Christ.

West facade

architecture

The church is a three-aisled pillar basilica with a barrel vault and three rectangular closed apses . It is mainly built of coarse quarry stone joined with mortar , in some cases regularly hewn cuboids were also used. The exterior is structured by buttresses , which on the west facade reflect the interior division into main and side aisles. The nave has three entrances, two in the south aisle and one in the west. A twin window with small horseshoe arches , which is surrounded by an alfiz frame decorated with a floral ornament, opens above a round arched portal at the level of the gallery . Above it is a victory cross or paw cross , on the arms of which hang the Greek letters alpha and omega , emblem of the Asturian king Alfonso III. Inside, the original opus signinum floor is partially preserved. The open bell tower (espadaña) in the west is from a later period.

East facade

On the east facade there are two windows, a twin window at gallery height and a triple window below. Both have horseshoe-shaped arches around which an Alfiz frame runs. The arches are marked by dew bands like the rings of the column bases . A vestibule made of yellowish limestone blocks adjoins the south aisle , in which two of the four arched windows have preserved their stone grilles . Neither the time of origin nor the use of this vestibule have been clearly clarified.

Murals

During restoration work, pre-Romanesque frescoes were discovered under the baroque overpainting , on which geometric motifs such as octagons and diamonds are depicted. Three crosses are depicted above the twin window on the west wall, the middle one, with the letters Alpha and Omega hanging on its cross arms, as on the cross relief on the west facade, being larger. On all three arms of the cross there are small goblets from which flames blaze.

literature

• Achim Arbeiter , Sabine Noack-Haley: Christian monuments of the early Middle Ages from the 8th to the 11th century . Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2312-3 , pp. 175–179 and pp. 192–203.
• Lorenzo Arias Páramo: Guía del Arte Prerrománico Asturiano . 2nd edition, Gijón 1999, ISBN 84-95178-20-6 , pp. 80-86.
• Jaime Cobreros: Guía del Prerrománico en España . Madrid 2006, ISBN 84-9776-215-0 , pp. 114-118.
• Jacques Fontaine: L'Art Préroman Hispanique . Volume 1, 2nd edition, Éditions Zodiaque, Abbaye de la Pierre-Qui-Vire 1973.

Web links

Commons : San Salvador de Valdediós  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 43 ° 26 ′ 13.5 "  N , 5 ° 30 ′ 23.7"  W.