Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Saviour, Oviedo: Cathedral and Royal Shrine
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- High
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Castile, Kingdom of Asturias, Kingdom of León, Spanish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page21 sections
History
The Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Saviour is a Roman Catholic cathedral and minor basilica in Oviedo, Spain, founded within the royal and ecclesiastical centre of the Kingdom of Asturias. Its present fabric is predominantly Flamboyant Gothic, while the site preserves or incorporates elements associated with Pre-Romanesque, Romanesque, Renaissance, and Baroque phases. The church is also known as Sancta Ovetensis, a title linked to the quantity and importance of its relics.
The Asturian royal complex
King Fruela I founded a basilica dedicated to the Holy Saviour on this site, traditionally dated to 781, although the precise foundation date remains uncertain. A Muslim raid in 794 destroyed and looted the building, whose original form is not known. After Alfonso II the Chaste transferred the Asturian capital to Oviedo, he developed an extensive royal and ecclesiastical complex around the basilica.
The complex included the basilicas of San Salvador and Santa María, the churches of San Tirso and San Juan Bautista, the monasteries of San Vicente and San Pelayo, episcopal buildings, a royal residence, and defensive walls. San Salvador served as the principal church. Santa María was used for royal funerary rites, including those of Alfonso II and later Asturian kings. Alfonso II established the See of Oviedo in 810, and San Salvador was probably consecrated on 13 October 821.
When the royal court moved to León in 910, Oviedo remained an episcopal centre. It also became an important station on the northern routes of the Way of Saint James, the network of Christian pilgrimage roads leading to Santiago de Compostela. The relics preserved at Oviedo later gave particular importance to the Way of Saint Salvador, which connected the northern pilgrimage network with the city.
The Cámara Santa and the early medieval treasury
The Cámara Santa, or Holy Chamber, was probably built around 884 during the reign of Alfonso III the Great, together with the Old Tower, which helped defend the complex. It first served as the cathedral treasury and later became a relic shrine as the veneration of relics and pilgrimage developed. Its lower chamber, the Crypt of Santa Leocadia, was subsequently used for burials.
The chamber was remodelled in the late twelfth century. A wooden roof was replaced with a barrel vault, and a cycle of the Apostles was installed on sculpted columns. On 11 October 1934, during the Asturias Revolution, a bomb badly damaged the Cámara Santa. Many artworks were harmed and important relics disappeared, although the Holy Shroud was recovered from the ruins. The chamber was reconstructed between 1939 and 1942, with an effort to preserve and reproduce its earlier form.
Gothic rebuilding
The cathedral’s Gothic rebuilding began with the chapter house and cloister at the end of the thirteenth century. The chapter house was sponsored by the precentor Pedro Esteban and the dean Fernando Alfonso. Work was under way by 1300, the cathedral chapter first met there in March 1314, and the room was completed that year. The cloister was constructed in successive phases from about 1300 to 1441 under different patrons and bishops.
Construction of the principal church began in 1382 under Bishop Gutierre of Toledo. Juan de Badajoz the Elder, Juan de Candamo, Pedro de Bueras or Buyeres, Pedro de la Tijera, Bartolomé de Solórzano, and other master builders directed successive stages, and work continued through the sixteenth century. The main chapel began in 1388 and was complete by 1451. By about 1500, the transept and three aisles had been finished, after which the western entrance and facade were developed under Juan de Badajoz.
The original design called for two towers, but after 1507 the project was reduced to a single tower. The tower was completed in the sixteenth century. Lightning damaged its original spire in 1575, after which Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón rebuilt it with Gothic and Renaissance elements. The facade and tower are also dated to 1587 in the Spanish cathedral account.
Baroque additions and royal memory
During the seventeenth century, the cathedral acquired an ambulatory, the Chapel of Santa Bárbara, the Chapel of the Vigiles, the Chapel of Santa Eulalia, the sacristy, and other side chapels. The adjacent pre-Romanesque church of Our Lady of the King Cast had served as a royal funerary church, but its poor condition led to its demolition and rebuilding in 1705 to 1712 under Bishop Tomás Reluz.
The rebuilt chapel preserved the royal funerary tradition of the Asturian and Leonese monarchies. Its Baroque urns are traditionally associated with Fruela I, Bermudo I, Alfonso II, Ramiro I, Ordoño I, Alfonso III, García I of León, Fruela II of León, and several queens, including Munia of Álava, Berta, Munia, Jimena, Elvira Menéndez, Urraca Sánchez, and Teresa Ansúrez. The attribution of some burials is historically uncertain.
Archaeology, reconstruction, and protection
Excavations between 1942 and 1950 followed the destruction of the episcopal palace during the Spanish Civil War. The work exposed remains south of the cathedral. José María Fernández Buelta and Víctor Hevia Granda identified them as the palace of Alfonso II, while later historians, including César García de Castro Valdés and Eduardo Carrero Santamaría, associated them instead with clergy and episcopal buildings.
A major restoration of the cathedral complex took place from 1998 to 2002 under the Spanish National Plan for Cathedrals. The cathedral became a minor basilica in 1872 and was designated a Spanish monument of cultural interest on 3 June 1931. The Cámara Santa and the monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of Asturias form part of the UNESCO World Heritage framework. The cathedral and Cámara Santa were also included in the World Heritage extension covering the Routes of Santiago de Compostela and the Northern Routes of Spain. In 1989, Pope John Paul II prayed before the image of the Holy Saviour.
Remains
The surviving complex combines a Latin-cross cathedral with three aisles, an early medieval Holy Chamber, a Gothic cloister and chapter house, royal burial spaces, and later chapels. Its materials and forms preserve successive building campaigns from the Asturian period through the Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque eras.
The cathedral church
Nave, crossing, and facade
The central aisle is approximately 67 metres long, 10 metres wide, and 20 metres high, while the side aisles are about 6 metres wide. Pointed, moulded arcades support the nave, above which runs a triforium, an elevated passage or zone of openings. The clerestory, the upper windowed part of the nave, contains glazed windows. Complex rib vaults cover the bays and rest on clustered stone piers.
The eastern end originally had a stepped arrangement with a central semicircular apse flanked by two smaller apses. A later Baroque remodelling introduced an ambulatory, a passage around the sanctuary, with five radial chapels, changing the appearance of the choir. The western facade begins with a low narthex, or entrance portico, containing three arches and three portals, one for each aisle. Its nearly flat ribbed vault forms a covered passage. The central portal carries a relief of the Transfiguration, figures of Fruela I and Alfonso II, and medallions of the Christ Child and the infant Saint John.
The eighteenth-century doors are made of walnut. Images of the Holy Saviour and Saint Eulalia of Mérida appear on the central doors as patrons of the cathedral and Asturias. The facade is asymmetrical, reflecting the decision to reduce the planned design to one tower.
The tower and bells
The single facade tower combines Gothic and Renaissance elements. Begun in 1508 under Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón from designs by Juan de Badajoz, it rises approximately 80 metres in five progressively smaller stages. It begins above the four piers of the portico and ends in a small temple with cylindrical turrets and a pinnacled spire. Its stages contain stone windows with central shafts and Gothic tracery. The second level has a clock, while the upper level bears the arms of Bishop Cristóbal Rojas Sandoval.
The tower contains the bells Santa Cruz, Santa Bárbara, Esquilón, and Wamba, together with the older bell mechanism. Santa Cruz was cast in 1539 and weighs 1,384 kilograms. Santa Bárbara was cast in 1818 and weighs 166 kilograms, while Esquilón dates from 1678 and weighs 481 kilograms. Other bells include Timbal 2, cast in bronze by José Sota in 1893 and weighing 81 kilograms; Timbal 1, cast in 1830 and weighing 91 kilograms; and De Posar, cast in bronze by José de Venero in 1817 and weighing 275 kilograms.
Wamba was cast in 1219 for Canon Pedro Peláez Cabeza under Bishop Juan González. The bronze bell weighs 833 kilograms, measures 1.30 metres in diameter and 1.05 metres in bronze height, and has a 13-centimetre rim. Traditionally regarded as the oldest bell still in operation in Spain, it continues to strike the hours despite a crack affecting its sound. Its inscriptions dedicate it to the Holy Saviour and invoke Christ’s victory and reign. Monstrous faces decorate its handles, and the bell has survived cannon fire, earthquakes, lightning, fires, and transfers.
Chancel and chapels
Main chapel and altarpiece
The main chapel is a polygonal Gothic space begun in 1388. It originally had two levels of windows, although the lower level is now obscured by the principal altarpiece. The tomb of Bishop Juan Arias de Villar contains a praying effigy, but the tomb is empty because his remains were transferred to Segovia Cathedral.
Dedicated to the Holy Saviour, the principal altarpiece was begun in 1511 on the order of Valeriano Ordóñez Villaquirán. Giralte de Bruselas, Juan de Balmaseda, and Miguel Bingeles made it, completing it in 1531. Approximately 12 metres by 12 metres, it contains 24 scenes from the life of Jesus, with painted work by León Picardo and some contribution from Alonso Berruguete.
Side chapels and ambulatory
The right aisle contains the Chapel of Saint Barbara, also called the Chapel of Saint Michael. Bishop Bernardo Caballero Paredes founded it as his Baroque funerary chapel. Its altarpiece is by Luis Fernández de la Vega, and its seventeenth-century image of Saint Barbara is by Antonio Borja. The seventeenth-century Chapel of Saint Martin of Tours has an altarpiece by Fernández de la Vega showing Saint Martin, the Immaculate Virgin, and the Fathers of the Church.
The Chapel of Saint Roch, also known as the Chapel of the Nativity, dates from the sixteenth century. Fernando de Llanes, abbot of Teverga, commissioned it as his burial chapel. Its altarpiece includes a Saint Roch by José Bernardo de la Meana dated 1658. The Gothic Chapel of Saint Anthony contains a Baroque and Rococo altarpiece by the same artist from the mid-eighteenth century, together with three tombs.
The Gothic Chapel of the Holy Christ of Velarde contains a Baroque altarpiece with a sixteenth-century crucifix attributed to Berruguete. The Chapel of Saint Eulalia is a seventeenth-century Plateresque chapel commissioned by Bishop Pedrejón and designed by Francisco Menéndez Camina. Its central shrine contains a silver urn with the saint’s bones, and its arrangement allowed pilgrims to circulate around the shrine.
The seventeenth-century ambulatory includes the sacristy and the Chapel of Covadonga. The latter contains the tomb of Bishop Gutierre of Toledo and, beneath its altar, the remains of Saint Melchor of Quirós, described as the first Asturian saint. A thirteenth-century sculpture of the Holy Saviour stands against the southern pillar of the crossing. The figure blesses with its right hand and holds a sphere in its left, and is thought to have come from the earlier Romanesque basilica.
Later Baroque chapels
The Chapel of the Vigiles, or Chapel of the Annunciation, was commissioned by Juan Vigil de Quiñones and completed in 1640 by Juan de Naveda. It has a central plan, a Classical Baroque design, a pierced saucer vault with an oculus and lantern, fluted pillars, and Composite capitals. Its furnishings include a seventeenth-century grille, a praying statue of Vigil de Quiñones by Luis Fernández de la Vega, and a Classical altarpiece with scenes of the Annunciation, the Baptism of Jesus, episodes from Christ’s life, and God the Redeemer. Restoration revealed structural remains of the lost Chapel of Santa María del Rey Cast beneath it.
The Chapel of the Assumption contains an eighteenth-century altarpiece of the Immaculate Conception on the north side of the transept. Nearby stands the fifteenth-century Shrine of the Hydria, a vessel-shaped receptacle traditionally said to contain one of the jars from the Marriage at Cana. It is said to hold 100 litres, and its blessed water is displayed on the feast of Saint Matthew.
The Baroque Chapel of Saint Eulalia of Mérida has a Greek-cross plan and a richly decorated dome. Founded in the seventeenth century by Bishop Simón García Pedrejón and built by the Menéndez Camino family, it contains a Baroque baldachin, or canopy over a shrine, by Domingo Suárez de la Puente, with relics of the saint. Several bishops, including its founder, are buried there.
The Cámara Santa
Holy Chamber and relic treasury
The Cámara Santa is attached to the Pre-Romanesque Tower of San Miguel between the southern transept arm and the cloister. It is a two-storey rectangular building. The lower level is the Crypt of Santa Leocadia, while the upper level served as the treasury and relic chapel, later called the Chapel of Saint Michael. The two sanctuaries are superimposed and were originally not directly connected.
The upper chamber preserves the Cross of the Angels, the Victory Cross, the Agate Box, the Holy Ark, the Holy Shroud, relics of the True Cross, and the twelfth-century Christ of Nicodemus. Many relics were traditionally brought from Toledo to protect them from Muslim rule. The Holy Shroud is a linen cloth associated by tradition with the burial of Jesus and dated in its material to the seventh century.
Six pairs of Romanesque apostle statues stand at the corners and intermediate points of the upper chamber’s walls. Their sculpted bases and capitals are important works in their own right. The Apostles and the barrel vault belong to the late twelfth-century remodelling. Earlier wall paintings were lost in the destruction of 1934.
Crypt of Santa Leocadia
The Crypt of Santa Leocadia is one of the oldest surviving parts of the former palatial and ecclesiastical complex. It formed the lower sanctuary of the two-level Cámara Santa and contains burials. Its construction has been attributed variously to Alfonso II and Alfonso III.
Cloister and chapter house
Gothic cloister
The cloister is a rectangular Gothic enclosure measuring approximately 27 by 32 metres. Its long sides have arcades of four arches, and its short sides have arcades of three. It replaced a twelfth-century Romanesque cloister and was completed in stages between about 1300 and 1441. The north side and two eastern bays are Classical Gothic, the south and west sides are fourteenth-century Gothic, and the remaining east side is fifteenth-century Flamboyant Gothic.
Riva Ladrón de Guevara added the upper level in the eighteenth century. This Baroque structure has fourteen windows, each with a balcony overlooking the central courtyard. The enclosure contains a small garden, 167 decorated capitals, funerary monuments, the tomb of Dean Pedro Gay, the tomb of Frigión de Cifuentes, the tombstone of Bishop Pelayo, a hunting corbel, and an Agnus Dei from the vanished Romanesque cloister. José Bernardo de la Meana made its Baroque archive door.
Chapter house
The square chapter house measures approximately 9.65 by 9.70 metres. Its unusually thick walls contain very few windows. An eight-section ribbed vault is supported by four corner squinches, which transform the square plan into an octagonal vault. The floor was originally lower than it is today and contains burials, including those of Álvaro Fernández and Archdeacon Miguel Fernández.
Surviving sections of the cathedral choir stalls, made between 1491 and 1497 by several foreign masters including the Gothic sculptor Alejo de Vahía, are preserved in the chapter house. The room also contains the fifteenth-century altarpiece known as the Lamentations, or Mourning over Christ.
Chapel of Our Lady of the King Cast and Royal Pantheon
The Chapel of Our Lady of the King Cast was built in 1705 for Bishop Tomás Reluz over a ninth-century chapel founded by Alfonso II. Designed by Bernardo de Haces and Luis de Arce, it runs parallel to the cathedral as a separate church with its own exterior entrance through a garden. A late Gothic doorway made by Juan de Malinas between 1470 and 1485 connects it to the cathedral.
The doorway has a central mullion carved with the Virgin and Child. The apostles James the Greater, Peter, Paul, and Andrew appear beside the doors, and a stone inscription associated with Alfonso III stands nearby. Busts of Asturian kings decorate the spandrels. Inside is a sixteenth-century altarpiece of the Virgin of Light from the school of Juan de Juni, with four small apostles and God the Father above. Two marble statues of Saints Peter and Paul date from the eighteenth century.
The Royal Pantheon occupies the chapel and contains Baroque funerary urns for members of the Asturian and Leonese royal dynasties. A central tomb is identified as that of Ithacius and has a fifth-century stone cover. The original royal pantheon and chapel were demolished in the early eighteenth century and reconsecrated after rebuilding in 1712.
