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Monastery of San Pedro de Villanueva

Cangas de Onís, Oriente, Asturias

1 Villages · 5 Monuments · 3 Nature

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Monastery of San Pedro de Villanueva

Monument · Cangas de Onís, Oriente, Asturias

A Benedictine monastery in the parish of Villanueva, in the concejo of Cangas de Onís, considered one of the most important examples of Romanesque architecture in Asturias. The first ecclesiastical building is attributed to the time of Alfonso I the Catholic, son-in-law of don Pelayo, although no trace remains of that pre-Romanesque structure: in the 12th century it went from church to monastery, and from the Romanesque period it retains part of its walls and its three stepped, semicircular apses, with historiated capitals depicting hunting scenes, dragons and the scene of the lady and the knight. At the end of the 20th century the old Benedictine convent was converted into a Parador Nacional de Turismo, opened on 8 July 1998. It is declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (a former Spanish heritage-protection designation) following its publication in the Gaceta de Madrid in 1907.

Photo: Wamba Wambez (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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