4 Best Sights in Oviedo, Galicia and Asturias

These two churches—the first with superb views and its plainer sister 300 yards uphill—are the jewels of an early architectural style called Asturian pre-Romanesque, a more primitive, hulking, defensive line that preceded Romanesque architecture by nearly three centuries. Commissioned as part of a summer palace by King Ramiro I when Oviedo was the capital of Christian Spain, these masterpieces have survived for more than 1,000 years. Tickets for both sites are available in the church of Santa María del Naranco.

Oviedo's Gothic cathedral was built between the 14th and 16th centuries around the city's most cherished monument, the Cámara Santa (Holy Chamber). King Ramiro's predecessor, Alfonso the Chaste (792–842), built it to hide the treasures of Christian Spain during the struggle with the Moors. Damaged during the Spanish Civil War, it has since been rebuilt. Inside is the gold-leaf Cross of the Angels, commissioned by Alfonso in 808 and encrusted with pearls and jewels. On the left is the more elegant Victory Cross, actually a jeweled sheath crafted in 908 to cover the oak cross used by Pelayo in the battle of Covadonga.

Housed in the splendid Monastery of San Vicente (behind the cathedral), this museum contains fragments of pre-Romanesque buildings. Descriptions are in Spanish only.

Older than its more famous pre-Romanesque counterparts on Monte Naranco, the 9th-century church of Santullano has surprisingly well-preserved frescoes inside. Geometric patterns, rather than representations of humans or animals, cover almost every surface, along with a cross containing Greek letters.