The Ramirense Style in Architecture
The art and architecture of Ramiro's reign forms the Pre-Romanesque Ramirense phase of Asturian art. His court was the center of great splendor, of which the palace and church of Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo are testimony.
On the southern slopes of Mount Naranco, near the city of Oviedo, Ramiro I ordered the construction of the palace of Santa María del Naranco, and a church known as San Miguel de Lillo or Liño. The church collapsed in the thirteenth century, and today only about a third of the original survives. Related service buildings do not survive even as ruins.
Another example of Ramirense architecture is the church of Santa Cristina de Lena, near the municipality of Lena, some 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Oviedo. The palace and the two churches have been designated World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.
Ramirense architecture introduced barrel vaults made of tufa (a relatively lightweight limestone). These were novel not only with respect to earlier architecture of the region but in terms of the European architecture of the period, including that if Muslim Spain, which used wooden roofs.
Read more about this topic: Ramiro I Of Asturias
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