Asturian Architecture

Asturian architecture is the pre-Romanesque building style of the Kingdom of Asturias in northwestern Spain, spanning the years 711 to 910, the period in which the kingdom was created and expanded. It developed as Asturias progressively recovered territory from Muslim-held Iberia, with its capital moving from Cangas de Onis through Pravia to Oviedo over the period, and it combined elements of Visigothic and Mozarabic building with local tradition into a distinctive style marked by refined construction technique, decorative detailing and gold ornamentation of sacred objects. Surviving treasures of the period, including the Cross of the Angels, the Victory Cross and an agate-decorated holy ark, are held in Oviedo Cathedral and attest to the sophistication of both the architecture and the decorative arts it supported.