Santa Cristina de Lena
Santa Cristina de Lena is a pre-Romanesque church in the town of Lena. It is situated on a hill above the River Lena, 36 km south of Oviedo, the capital of the autonomous community of Asturias, in northwestern Spain.
1985 was included in the UNESCO list of cultural monuments of Santa Cristina de Lena, along with San Miguel de Lillo and Santa María del Naranco as Monumentos de Oviedo y del Reino de Asturias ( Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of Asturias) in 1998 to the Church of San Julián de los Prados, the Cámara Santa was extended to the Cathedral of San Salvador of Oviedo and the well house La Foncalada in Oviedo.
History
The church of Santa Cristina de Lena is dedicated to the martyr Christina of Bolsena, which should be according to the legend in the 3rd century lived in the Italian town of Bolsena and died as a young girl for their faith. The exact date of the church is not known. It is assigned to the reign of the Asturian King Ramiro I ( 842-850 ) or his successor Ordoño I. ( 850-866 ). Perhaps it was as part of a palace complex - similar to the Monte Naranco in Oviedo - built, followed by a still as Palacio ( Palace) suggests designated place. Near the church is a Roman road runs to the Cantabrian coast and in excavations the foundations of Roman villas have been discovered.
Architecture
The building is built of irregular, the assembled with mortar masonry. Only the corners of large blocks of stone were used. The exterior facade is divided by 32 buttresses which support the barrel vault, which spans the whole ship. The floor plan of the building is a rectangle, on the outside connect to all four sides, square, vaulted rooms. The western cultivation serves as the entrance hall, the cultivation in the East apse. There is a gallery, which is interpreted as a king loft above the western porch. The church of Santa Cristina de Lena is in contrast to the mostly three-aisled nave pre-Romanesque churches of Asturias and has three apses instead of only one apse. The barrel vault of the apse rests on blind arcades on the north and south walls. Arcades also run along the side walls of the vessel. They carry the five bays of the below captured by transverse arches barrel vault and is based on half-columns with Pyramidenstumpfkapitellen.
The design of the interior is very similar to the former, rebuilt the church of Santa María del Naranco Belvedere Palace of Ramiro I. Even in the church of Santa Cristina de Lena decorate - although in less developed form - the spandrels of the arcades medallions ( Clipeus ) where lions are shown. Just one of the pilasters is obtained, on which a rider can be seen with a lance.
Presbytery
The eastern, located in front of the apse yoke of the ship is almost a meter above and can be reached via lateral staircases. It is separated from the rest of the ship by a triple arcade with two superimposed rows of arches, which are supported by marble columns with Corinthian capitals. In the central arch is a stone barrier, which was probably created and re-used already in the late 7th century. It consists of two plates and a middle, slightly higher pillar. Plates and pillars are decorated in marble and decorated with reliefs of circles, rosettes, vine tendrils and vines. At the edges of incomplete inscriptions have been preserved, which suggests that older inscription panels were used for making the barrier. In the wall area between the two rows of arches five transennae are built, where it is re-used marble slabs from the Visigoth. In the middle transenna five small horseshoe arches are cut, which are attributed to Mozarabic influence. The whole barrier system was used to separate the choir, also known as the presbytery, the area of the laity. They corresponded to the to the 11th century commonly used in Spain and had a Hispanic liturgy the iconostasis of Orthodox churches comparable function. In addition, the choir was covered with curtains.