Santa Cristina de Lena

Church of St. Christine of Lena Iglesia de Santa Cristina de Lena (Spanish)
Basic information
Location	Lena, Spain
Geographic coordinates	43°7′38.4″N 5°48′51.5″W
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
Province	Asturias
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Inactive
Heritage designation	World Heritage Site
Architectural description
Architectural type	Church
Architectural style	Pre-Romanesque
Direction of façade	NE
Groundbreaking	VII century
Completed	852
Specifications
Length	16 metres (52 ft)
Width	12 metres (39 ft)

Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of the Asturias *
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Country	Spain
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iv, vi
Reference	312
Region **	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	1985 (9th Session)
Extensions	1998
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List ** Region as classified by UNESCO

St Christine of Lena (Spanish: Santa Cristina de Lena) is a Roman Catholic Asturian pre-Romanesque church located in the Lena municipality, about 25 km south of Oviedo, Spain, on an old Roman road that joined the lands of the plateau with Asturias.

The church has a different ground plan to Pre-Romanesque's traditional basilica. It is a single rectangular space with a barrel vault, with four adjoining structures located in the centre of each facade. The first of these annexes is the typical Asturian Pre-Romanesque vestibule, with a royal tribune on the upper part, accessed via a stairway joined to one of the walls. To the east is the enclosure with the altar, with a single apse, foregoing the traditional Asturian pre-romanesque triple apse, and going back to Visigoth influences. To the north and south respectively, there are two other enclosures through semicircular arches and barrel vaults, whose use was associated with the Hispano-Visigothic liturgy practised in Spain up to the 11th century.

One of the most particular elements of Santa Cristina de Lena is the existence of the presbytery elevated above floor level in the last section of the central nave, separated from the area intended for the congregation by three arches on marble columns. This separation, which appears in other Asturian churches, is not repeated in any other with a similar structure. Both the lattices over the arches and the wall enclosing the central arch were re-used from Visigothic origins in the 7th century.

Gallery

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  View from the outside

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  View from the outside

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  Nave and chapel

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  Floor map of the church

See also

• Asturian art

References

• Lapunzina, Alejandro (2005). "Santa Cristina de Lena, Pola de Lena (near Oviedo), Asturias". Architecture of Spain. Westport: Greenwood Press. pp. 229–232. ISBN 0313319634. http://books.google.com/?id=yDmR2i32cygC&pg=PA229. 
• Conant, Kenneth (1992). Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture: 800-1200. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 92. ISBN 0300052987. 
• Fergusson, James (1867). "Book VII: Spanish and Portugal". A history of architecture in all countries. 2. John Murray. pp. 123–124. http://books.google.com/?id=uSsDAAAAQAAJ&printsec=toc. 
• Arias Paramo, Lorenzo (1992). "Geometría y proporción en la arquitectura prerrománica asturiana" (in Spanish). Actas del III Congreso de Arqueología Medieval Española (Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo): 27–37. ISBN 9788460419167. ISSN 8460419169. http://books.google.com/?id=2diqpqpbMeMC&pg=PA27. Retrieved 2009-05-31.