Santa María del Naranco

North facade with access stairs and eastern logia

South facade; Before: Remains of the sub-construction for the no longer preserved southern loggia

Santa María del Naranco is a pre-Romanesque building located at the foot of Monte Naranco, three kilometers northwest of Oviedo , the capital of the Spanish autonomous community of Asturias . It was built in the middle of the 9th century under the Asturian King Ramiro I as an aula regia of a palace complex and later used as a church.

In 1855, Santa María del Naranco was declared a Monumento Nacional (Protected Cultural Property ) and in 1985 together with the former palace chapel of San Miguel de Lillo and the Church of Santa Cristina de Lena as Monumentos de Oviedo y del Reino de Asturias (Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of Asturias ) included in the UNESCO World Heritage List , which was expanded in 1998 to include the Church of San Julián de los Prados , the Cámara Santa of the Cathedral of San Salvador and the La Foncalada fountain house in Oviedo.

history

East facade

The Romans had already built villas and thermal baths on the slope of Monte Naranco . King Ramiro I (ruled 842-850) had a summer residence built there at the gates of Oviedo, the then capital of the Kingdom of Asturias . It was a palace complex that included royal villas, bathing buildings, stables and dog kennels for the hunting dogs, a palace chapel dedicated to Mary (today: San Miguel de Lillo ) and a representative hall (today: Santa María Naranco). From this palace complex only parts of the former palace chapel and the hall, also known as the Belvedere , have been preserved.

Between the late 9th and early 12th centuries, the Belvedere was given the function and patronage of the original palace chapel, which was believed to have fallen into disrepair. Over the centuries, the rededicated building received various additions and an open bell gable ( espadaña ), which were removed again in the 1930s.

architecture

Exterior construction

Floor plan of the upper floor

The building stands at right angles to the slope on an artificial terrace. It is built over a right-angled floor plan and has two floors. It has a height of 11 meters, a length of 21 meters and a width of 6 meters. The construction consists of blocks and rubble and has a gable roof covered. For the time it was sensational and unique that the rooms on the upper floor were also vaulted. It is certain that the upper floor served representative purposes simply because of the structural and decorative effort. The comparison of the palace of Naranco with medieval royal palaces is obvious and in such a context the hall would have the function of an auditorium . However, this use is controversial.

No role models are known for the building. The new building decoration takes up Visigoth , Byzantine and Islamic suggestions. The architecturally closest building is the church of Santa Cristina de Lena, 40 kilometers south .

The long sides of the building, the south and north facade, are divided by eight fluted buttresses each. Triforias with stilted round arches and spirally decorated columns with Corinthian capitals open out over the large viewing arcades . Originally the building was plastered and painted.

inner space

Basement

Basement

The term crypt for the lower floor comes from the time when the building was used as a church . In the middle of the long side of the building there is access to the basement on each side. It is divided into a central room and two side rooms in the east and west. The central area is spanned by a very deep barrel vault supported by belt arches . The two side rooms are covered with wood. The floor of the eastern room is one meter lower and it could have served as a bath or cistern . The western area is only accessible from the outside. There is also no internal staircase to the upper floor of the building.

First floor

inner space

The upper floor is accessible from the outside through a two-flight staircase on the north side. The rooms on the first floor have a continuous barrel vault with belt arches. The eastern and western borders form loggias , so-called miradores , whose high, open triple arcades with stilted round arches offer a wonderful view of Oviedo and the Cantabrian Cordillera and justify the name Belvedere.

The central hall measures 12.7 meters × 4.4 meters and is 7.4 meters high. Blind arcades with raised round arches run along its inner walls - three arch positions on the narrow sides and seven on the long sides. They are rhythmic, getting higher and wider from the outside in. The pillars supporting them consist of four strands each, which are twisted and fluted or decorated with dew ribbons. They have truncated pyramid capitals on which animals (especially birds and lions) and small people leaning on sticks are depicted. There is another door on the side of the great hall opposite the entrance. It previously led to an exit that was supported by an extension. The exit is not, the extension is only preserved in the remains of the wall.

The loggias open outwards via high, open triple arcades made of round arches. The loggias are connected to the hall in between by three archways each, the size of which corresponds to the round arches on the outside. The same scheme is repeated, on a much smaller scale, again in the gable field above the round arches and forms a window for the rooms above the loggias. The balustrades that once stood between the outer arches are lost. There is another room above the loggias, which - at least today - is only accessible via a ladder.

altar

Altar in the eastern loggia

In the eastern loggia, which was used as a choir when it was used by the church , there is an altar block . It is a copy of an original that is now in the Museo Arqueológico de Asturias (Archaeological Museum of Asturias). The original found a secondary use here, as its dedicatory inscription says that the building for which the altar was created was a replacement for a building that collapsed under the weight of its age.

Sculpture jewelry

Truncated pyramid capital with dew bands, people and depictions of animals

Medallion (clipeus) and pilaster strips with figurative relief

On the inside as well as on the outside facade , medallions ( clipeus ) framed by dew ribbons are attached in the spandrels between the arches 32 , in the middle of which peacocks, pelicans, swans or a predator with a snake tail are shown. Fluted pilaster strips extend over the medallions to the base of the vault . Some show armed horsemen and people holding an object above their heads, others Asturian crosses of victory with alpha and omega hanging on their arms . These crosses are considered the emblem of the Asturian royal family.

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. 141-142 u. 58-165.
Jaime Cobreros: Guía del Prerrománico en España . Madrid 2006, ISBN 84-9776-215-0 , pp. 101-105.
Jacques Fontaine: L'Art Préroman Hispanique . Volume 1, 2nd edition, Éditions Zodiaque, Abbaye de la Pierre-Qui-Vire 1973, pp. 101-113 u. 253-334.
Dietrich Höllhuber and Werner Schäfke: The Spanish Way of St. James. History and art on the way to Santiago de Compostela . DuMont, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-7701-4862-2 .
Pedro de Palol , Max Hirmer : Art of the early Middle Ages from the Visigoth Empire to the end of the Romanesque. Hirmer, Munich 1965, ISBN 3-7774-5730-2 .
Lorenzo Arias Páramo: Guía del Arte Prerrománico Asturiano . 2nd edition, Gijón 1999, ISBN 84-95178-20-6 , pp. 44-56.
Werner Schäfke: Northwest Spain. Landscape, history and art on the way to Santiago de Compostela . DuMont, Cologne 1987. ISBN 3-7701-1589-9
Pierre Tisné et al: Spain. Pictorial Atlas of Spanish Art . DuMont Schauberg, Cologne 1968, ISBN 3-7701-4461-9 .
Matthias Untermann : Architecture in the early Middle Ages . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 978-3-534-03122-1 .

Web links

Commons : Santa María del Naranco - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of the Asturias Unesco World Heritage List
↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 255.
↑ “As far as the original purpose of this profane monument is concerned, the interpretation as a king's hall specifically Germanic tradition (A. Haupt) is now considered obsolete. The monarchical context of its creation is certain, however, evident are the representative, aesthetically unusual and captivating character of the building and the beauty of its integration into the landscape. While the basement was only used for technical purposes (among other things as a water reservoir) and the elevation of the main rooms, various purposes of ruling stays are conceivable for the latter, be it highly official acts, ceremonies, receptions or deliberations, be it banquets or recrative retreats. " (Achim Arbeiter, Sabine Noack-Haley: Hispania antiqua.Christian monuments of the early Middle Ages ... , p. 162)
↑ “On a small, artificially created terrace, which offers an extraordinarily beautiful view of Oviedo and the Katabrian Cordillera, this building rises with three, today still two miradores (loggias), which can therefore be aptly described as a belvedere . " (Achim Arbeiter, Sabine Noack-Haley: Hispania antiqua. Christian monuments of the early Middle Ages ... , p. 159)
↑ “Oh Christ, Son of God, who entered the womb of the Virgin Mary without human conception and emerged from it immaculately, who, through your servant Ramiro, the glorious ruler, with his wife Queen Paterna, renewed this ancient place through her having erected this altar of the glorious consecration of St. Mary in this high place, hear her in your heavenly home and forgive her sins, who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen. On the 9th day before the calendar of July of the era 886 [= 23 June 843]. ” (Achim Arbeiter, Sabine Noack-Haley: Hispania antiqua. Christian monuments of the early Middle Ages ... , p. 157)

43.379027777778 -5.8659722222222Coordinates: 43 ° 22 '44.5 " N , 5 ° 51' 57.5" W.

[1] Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of the Asturias Unesco World Heritage List

[2] Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 255.

[3] “As far as the original purpose of this profane monument is concerned, the interpretation as a king's hall specifically Germanic tradition (A. Haupt) is now considered obsolete. The monarchical context of its creation is certain, however, evident are the representative, aesthetically unusual and captivating character of the building and the beauty of its integration into the landscape. While the basement was only used for technical purposes (among other things as a water reservoir) and the elevation of the main rooms, various purposes of ruling stays are conceivable for the latter, be it highly official acts, ceremonies, receptions or deliberations, be it banquets or recrative retreats. " (Achim Arbeiter, Sabine Noack-Haley: Hispania antiqua.Christian monuments of the early Middle Ages ... , p. 162)

[4] “On a small, artificially created terrace, which offers an extraordinarily beautiful view of Oviedo and the Katabrian Cordillera, this building rises with three, today still two miradores (loggias), which can therefore be aptly described as a belvedere . " (Achim Arbeiter, Sabine Noack-Haley: Hispania antiqua. Christian monuments of the early Middle Ages ... , p. 159)

[5] “Oh Christ, Son of God, who entered the womb of the Virgin Mary without human conception and emerged from it immaculately, who, through your servant Ramiro, the glorious ruler, with his wife Queen Paterna, renewed this ancient place through her having erected this altar of the glorious consecration of St. Mary in this high place, hear her in your heavenly home and forgive her sins, who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen. On the 9th day before the calendar of July of the era 886 [= 23 June 843]. ” (Achim Arbeiter, Sabine Noack-Haley: Hispania antiqua. Christian monuments of the early Middle Ages ... , p. 157)