Religious sites in Spain
Santa Maria De Budejo Monastery
Santa María de Bujedo Monastery was probably founded between 1159-1172. The oldest documentary evidence confirming the existence of the monastery dates from 1182. It was confiscated in 1835. The church, built in the first half of the 13th century, has a Latin cross plan with a single nave. There are some remains left of the original monastery buildings dating to the the 13th century. Seven double capitals and four bas ...
Founded: c. 1159 |
Location:
Santa Cruz de Juarros, Spain
St. Martha’s Church
The old Velle church, although of Romanesque origin, combines many Gothic, Baroque and even modern elements. The apse is Baroque, while its interior preserves purely Romanesque elements such as the triumphal arch and the capitals on which it rests, with vegetal decoration. Both are from the 13th century. The façade has a semicircular arch decorated with high reliefs and is crowned with a steeple, used as a bell tower.
Founded: 13th century |
Location:
Ourense, Spain
Pre-Christian Basilica Fornàs de Torelló
Pre-Christian basilica with a regular layout, the central nave paved with a magnificent mosaic which can still be seen. It dates from the 6th century A.D., when the Byzantine army of Justinian (the Eastern Roman Emperor who aspired to rebuild the Western Roman Empire) had conquered the Balearic Islands. It faces from east to west, and on the northern side retains a small hemispherical baptismal font built in stone and mo ...
Founded: 6th century AD |
Location:
Mahón, Spain
Monasterio de Santa María de Mezonzo
The Monastery of Santa María de Mezonzo is a Romanesque style former monastery. Although it probably dates back to the time of the Kingdom of the Suebi, the current monastery was founded as a double convent by Abbot Reterico. According to Antonio López Ferreiro, the monastery was donated to the Asturian-Galician king Alfonso III el Magno in 870. Justo Pérez de Urbel, after comparing the names of the confirmatory of sev ...
Founded: 10th century AD |
Location:
Vilasantar, Spain
Santa María Church
Iglesia de Santa María is a 13th-century romanesque church in the concejo of Villaviciosa. It is unusual in having preserved the fabric of an earlier construction dated between the 8th and 10th centuries.
Founded: 13th century |
Location:
Villaviciosa, Spain
Convento de la Magdalena
Convento de la Magdalena was a convent, now a hotel, situated to the southwest of the town of Antequera. The convent was established in 1570 by the merchant, Ildefonso Alvarez, who possessed an altarpiece of the Virgin Magdalena. Alvarez took refuge in the area"s caves and lived like a hermit. In the following three years, he struggled to pay his debts and eventually attracted the attention of the Christian communit ...
Founded: 1570 |
Location:
Antequera, Spain
Santiago Church
Originally built in the 10th century, the The Church of Santiago has pre-Romanesque windows reminiscent of those of the Church of San Salvador de Valdediós. (Pre-Romanesque architecture in Asturias is framed between the years 711 and 910, the period of the creation and expansion of the kingdom of Asturias). It was refurbished in the 15th or 16th centuries. The church was burned down during the Spanish Civil war and rebui ...
Founded: 10th century AD |
Location:
Sariego, Spain
Santa Fe Monastery
Santa Fe Monastery was founded at the end of the 12th century. It consists of religious and civic buildings: the 13th-14th century church , the cloister from the 17th century, and 15th century granary peculiar for its square plan on twelve posts. The 13th century church has a simple interior, highlighting the great lattice that divides the altar of the faithful, of which few samples remain because they were removed over ...
Founded: 12th century |
Location:
Urraúl Alto, Spain
Aldealpozo Church
The 12th-century late Romanesque church of San Juan Bautista is attached to a 10th-century Berber tower, which is 18 metres tall with a 9.4x7.4 metre floor plan and 1.75-metre thick walls on all of its three floors. Originally it was built with the rammed earth technique but then the structure was changed to stonework. The access door to the tower is hidden in a passageway that connects the tower to the church. Later on, ...
Founded: 10th century |
Location:
Aldealpozo, Spain
Monastery of Santa Clara
Monastery of Santa Clara is presided by nuns of the order of the Poor Clares. It was founded in 1358, but ruined in war in 1458. In 1460 the buildings were repaired and church rebuilt. During the War of Independence, the community was forced to leave the monastery, which suffered pillage and destruction by French troops. The church was built in Gothic style. It has Baroque style altarpieces from the 17th century, as we ...
Founded: 1358 |
Location:
Belorado, Spain
San Miguel del Monte Monastery
The monastery of San Miguel del Monte was founded at the end of the 14th century and built mainly between the 15th and 16th centuries in a Gothic-Renaissance style. Only the ruins of the church and part of the cloister remain of the old buildings. The rest of the site was reused in the 20th century to create a nursing home.
Founded: 14th century |
Location:
Miranda de Ebro, Spain
Santa María la Real de Vileña Monastery
Santa María la Real de Vileña Monastery was founded by Queen Urraca López de Haro, widow of King Fernando II of León in 1222. The monastery reached its highest prosperity in the 16th century. From that time dates the altarpiece made by Pedro López de Gámiz. After a fire in May 1970 that destroyed the monastery, the nuns moved to a new building in the town of Villarcayo.
Founded: 1222 |
Location:
Vileña, Spain
San Salvador Church
Iglesia de San Salvador is a Romanesque-style church located in the town of Fuentes, Villaviciosa. The church of San Salvador is documented in 1021 (via an inscription) as due to the patronate of Diego Perez, and consecrated by Bishop Adaganeo I. The church appears to have been built in the 12th-century. The diocese of Villaviciosa is mentioned in 1385 by the bishop of Oviedo, Gutierre de Toledo. The temple is mentioned i ...
Founded: 12th century |
Location:
Villaviciosa, Spain
Church of Santa Eulalia de la Lloraza
Church of Santa Eulalia de la Lloraza is a Romanesque-style church in the municipality of Villaviciosa. The origins of the church are not clear, although the origin of the church may be the endowment by a leper who traveled the Camino de Santiago route which passed through the area. The church may have been funded initially by an offering of Queen Berengaria of Castile, wife of King Alfonso IX of León. The present chu ...
Founded: 13th century |
Location:
Villaviciosa, Spain
Church of Santiago de Gobiendes
Saint James of Gobiendes (Iglesia de Santiago de Gobiendes) is a Roman Catholic pre-romanesque church, located in Gobiendes, next to Colunga. It was built during the reign of Alfonso II of Asturias, its structure is typical of pre-romanesque Asturian architecture. It underwent through an important remodeling in 1853, being further restored in 1946 and in 1983.
Founded: 9th century AD |
Location:
Colunga, Spain
San Nicolás Church
San Nicolás is a Romanesque-style church in the diocese of Villoria. The 12th century original church was rebuilt in the 16th and 18th centuries, but it still has the original main portal.
Founded: 12th century |
Location:
Laviana, Spain
Church of Santa María de Sariegomuerto
The Church of Santa María de Sariegomuerto is a Romanesque-style church in the municipality of Villaviciosa. The church appears to date originally from the 12th to 13th centuries; it appears to be mentioned in documents in 921, linked to grants by Ordoño II to the Oviedo Cathedral. The church has undergone a number of refurbishments along the centuries. The church was rebuilt after arson during the Spanish civil war.
Founded: 12th century |
Location:
Villaviciosa, Spain
Arrabaldo Church
The church of Santa Cruz de Arabaldo was originally a small monastery that depended on the important Cistercian community of Oseira: its documents date it as early as the 12th century. It consists of a single nave and rectangular apse. Its façade is Baroque, but the rest of the stonework is Romanesque. Thus, on the southern façade we find a mysterious inscription with Romanesque characters and on the cornice some corb ...
Founded: 12th century |
Location:
Arrabaldo, Spain
Church of San Juan de Berbío
The Church of San Juan de Berbío probably belonged to the monastery founded by Alfonso V in 1005; the Infanta Doña Urraca donated it to the Monastery of San Pedro de Eslonza in 1099. The structure went through several redesigns in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The most extensive was in the eighteenth century, which added square heads and porch trim. Of the original Romanesque design, all that remains are the ...
Founded: 11th century |
Location:
Piloña, Spain
Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Photo from Flickr, copyright Mr Phil Price
Historic Site of the week
Caerleon Roman Amphitheatre
Built around AD 90 to entertain the legionaries stationed at the fort of Caerleon (Isca), the impressive amphitheatre was the Roman equivalent of today’s multiplex cinema. Wooden benches provided seating for up to 6,000 spectators, who would gather to watch bloodthirsty displays featuring gladiatorial combat and exotic wild animals.
Long after the Romans left, the amphitheatre took on a new life in Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the somewhat imaginative 12th-century scholar, wrote in his History of the Kings of Britain that Arthur was crowned in Caerleon and that the ruined amphitheatre was actually the remains of King Arthur’s Round Table.
Today it is the most complete Roman amphitheatre in Britain.