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Church of San Salvador de Fuentes

Villaviciosa, Gijón, Asturias

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Church of San Salvador de Fuentes

Monument · Villaviciosa, Gijón, Asturias

Built in the twelfth century over a temple already consecrated in 1031 by Bishop Adaganeo, and declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (an earlier Spanish heritage-protection category, precursor to the BIC) in 1931, it is one of the major works of Maliayo Romanesque. A lengthy inscription discovered in the nineteenth century by Francisco de Paula Caveda y Solares records the names of its founders, Diego Pérez and his wife Mansuara, and the property they donated for its construction. From its treasury came the celebrated Cross of Fuentes, a masterpiece of medieval Asturian goldsmithing, today outside Asturias: plundered in 1898 and sold to French and later American collectors, J. Pierpont Morgan donated it in 1917 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it is kept. The church, burned during the Civil War, was restored in 1950.

Photo: Carmenmoran (CC BY 4.0)

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