San Salvador de Valdediós, 9th century

There are two ancient churches in Valdediós: San Salvador (shown here) and Santa María. San Salvador is pre-romanesque, dated from the 9th century, and contains an area, above the west door, said to have been used by the kings of Asturias and their families when they attended for services. Their residence in Oviedo would  have been about 50km away, so it´s not clear how often they would have made the journey. Santa María was a monastery as well as a church and dates from the 13th century. The complex was a hospital in the Civil War and the site of a notorious atrocity; and more recently it also houses an albergue - a pilgrims´ hostel on one of the Camino de Santiago routes.