The Peculiar Ninth Century Asturian Church of Santa Cristina de Lena

In the midst of research for another topic, I stumbled across the rather unique and peculiar mid-ninth century church of Santa Cristina de Lena located in Lena, Spain.  This particular church architecturally falls into a style of architecture known as "Asturian" coming with reference to the Kingdom of the Asturias that was found in the Iberian peninsula following the Muslim conquest of Spain. This particular style pre-dates Romanesque in the region. 

The church was constructed in the year 852 and has a rather distinctive layout. Essentially it is rectangular space with a barrel vault that then has smaller rectangular spaces appended to this on each of the four sides of the church.

In this regard it is technically a cruciform church, but a very unique form of one. 

The two rectangular spaces found to either side of the nave do not seem to have much practical or liturgical purpose but are thought to have some co-relation to the Visigothic liturgical practices of the time in which the church was built.

The peculiarity of this church does not end there however. The presbytery is raised (and while this is uncommon it is not necessarily peculiar); what is, however, is that at the top of the steps that lead up to the presbytery we find a chancel screen. Most unusual though is that in the centre we find a low balustrade that, visually speaking, sits where one would expect to see an altar in a basilica in Rome -- excepting of course this is not the altar but rather a low wall and, what's more, despite being raised, there is no actual confessio here (which was frequently why we find churches with the presbytery raised). This curious placement is perhaps explained by the fact that this architectural element was in fact spolia that had been repurposed by the church's builders from an earlier Visigothic structure. 

Another curiosity one will take note of the two niches found behind both of the two sets of steps leading up to the presbytery. These each have their own secondary set of steps leading up to them, which suggests they were meant, for one reason or another, to be accessible spaces and not purely ornamental. (One wonders, here again, if there are connections to Visigothic liturgical practices). 

The altar itself sits at the highest point int he church within the Easternmost of the smaller rectangular spaces; a window sits directly behind the altar in a rather Byzantine like fashion. 

Another peculiarity of this church is that there is a third set of steps whcih leads up to a gallery level over the rear nave. From this place you can also get a sense of the small size of the nave of the church. 

Finally, here also is a view of the exterior of the church to help give you a fuller sense of the plan of the church.

A virtual tour of this unique church is available on Facebook for those interested in exploring it still further. It is almost necessary to see this in order to more fully comprehend Santa Cristina's liturgical and architectural ordering -- and seeing it certainly invites further investigation into the specific Visigothic liturgical practices that may welll have informed some of the architectural choices here. 

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