Other activities

Book presentation

The Mystery of Santa Cristina. History and Archaeology of a Pre-Romanesque Settlement

by Iván Muñiz

Thursday, May 22, 7:00 p.m. at the Municipal Cultural Center of La Pola, L.lena (Plaza Alfonso X el Sabiu, 7, La Pola, L.lena)

Talk by the author: “Santa Cristina de L.lena. The Gateway to a Kingdom”

This monograph presents a comprehensive study of the church of Santa Cristina de Lena (Felgueras, Lena) and its surroundings in the Lena River Valley, from its founding in the 9th century to its most recent restoration in the 21st century.

The reader will be drawn into a narrative in which kings, master architects, sculptors, feudal lords, monks, peasants of yesterday and today, parish priests, archaeologists, and contemporary art historians appear and disappear in a multifaceted manner, all simultaneously protagonists and witnesses of the vicissitudes endured by this jewel of Asturian pre-Romanesque art. All available sources are exploited, from the temple walls and archaeological records obtained during excavations to the analysis of the current land plot and its toponymy, including all the documents referring to the valley that have survived to the present day. Santa Cristina is now understood in its social and territorial context, a perspective hitherto unpublished in studies of Asturian pre-Romanesque art.

On the occasion of the presentation of the book, co-published by the MAA and the Trea publishing house, its author Iván Muñiz will give a talk where he will discuss the importance of L.lena as one of the great historical spaces of the Middle Ages since the time of the Kingdom of Asturias, represented in a heritage, events and a cultural landscape that symbolize the great pre-Romanesque monument of Santa Cristina and its territory.