Santianes de Pravia

The church of San Juan Apostol y Evangelista is the oldest of the pre-Romanesque churches in Asturias and was ordered to be built by the kings Silo and Adosinda, who moved the capital of the Asturian Kingdom to Pravia (774-783).

Located in the municipality of Pravia, of the original basilica built in 780, only a few remains remain in the central nave and the side walls. It consisted of three naves with a transept and three rectangular chapels. Over the entrance arch to the transept there was a labyrinthine inscription formed by the words Silo Princeps Fecit, and a vestibule served as the Royal Pantheon. The arches were semicircular on square pilasters and the roof was made of wood.

The main altar is a replica of the original, which has been in the crypt of the Jesús Nazareno church in El Pito (Cudillero) since 1984.

The belfry, built in 1868, which stood at the foot and did not correspond to the original construction, was attached to the south sacristy in the last restoration carried out by D. Luis Menéndez-Pidal y Álvarez between 1979 and 1980.

As pre-Romanesque remains, it conserves parts of the columns of the triumphal arch, two small windows with horseshoe arches, a twinned one, and several catalogued remains found in the sacristy.

It has an interesting Romanesque Calvary in the south arm of the transept.