Drum roll please — Restoration of San Miguel in Naranco

peregrina2000 · May 17, 2020

It’s been a while since we’ve been singing the praises of the two pre-romanesque buildings about a 45 minute walk outside of Olviedo. If you haven’t heard about them, they are the 9th century church of San Miguel de Lillo and the former palace turned church of Santa María. The official website has beautiful pictures.

San Miguel has been closed for several years now, I think, for the purpose of interior renovation. We are starting to get little snippets of information that the restoration is almost done, but I haven’t yet seen any pictures of the final results. If anyone sees anything, please post here!

BTW, for those walking the Primitivo, there are many threads on how to combine a visit to the sites with a continuation to the albergue in Escamplero, which would make for about a 20 km day, I think. I always prefer to take a day for a separate visit, though, because these places are just incredible. Easy to get to — go to the Oviedo train station, keep going behind it and start going up. You will go through some residential neighborhoods and then arrive at Naranco, where these two amazing places are waiting for you!!

josephmcclain · May 18, 2020

peregrina2000 said:
It’s been a while since we’ve been singing the praises of the two pre-romanesque buildings about a 45 minute walk outside of Olviedo. If you haven’t heard about them, they are the church of San Miguel de Lillo and the former palace turned church of Santa María. The official website has beautiful pictures.

San Miguel has been closed for several years now, I think, for the purpose of interior renovation. We are starting to get little snippets of information that the restoration is almost done, but I haven’t yet seen any pictures of the final results. If anyone sees anything, please post here!

BTW, for those walking the Primitivo, there are many threads on how to combine a visit to the sites with a continuation to the albergue in Escamplero, which would make for about a 20 km day, I think. I always prefer to take a day for a separate visit, though, because these places are just incredible. Easy to get to — go to the Oviedo train station, keep going behind it and start going up. You will go through some residential neighborhoods and then arrive at Naranco, where these two amazing places are waiting for you!!

So beautiful. Thanks. I decided not to go up there last year on my Primitivo. A mistake. Next time!!!

Felice · May 18, 2020

I loved San Miguel de Lillo. A real gem of a church inside with amazing carvings. I was really disappointed to not be allowed to take photos and also that there seemed to be no postcards or anything available either.

peregrina2000 · May 21, 2020

Hunting around to see if the church has yet had its official first showing, no luck. But I did come across another article describing the process. Some interesting details:

Cost was 700,000 € The need for emergency structural repairs, discovered during the restoration, added 37.000 € more to the budget.

The goal was cleaning and restoring, so nothing will be added. Lots of stuff removed from the paintings, which will make them sharper and brighter.

Some graffiti from the Civil War has been discovered. From what I can see in the picture, it looks like someone wanted to document his stint keeping guard in the church. But I expect that the newly reopened church will have documentation that explains better.

Can’t wait to see the results of this two year process!

Helen1 · May 21, 2020

Awesome! This is such a special place to visit. I don't know why more people on the CF don't take a day trip from Leon to visit, plus on a fine day the train journey through the mountains is pretty impressive.

peregrina2000 · May 22, 2020

Helen1 said:
Awesome! This is such a special place to visit. I don't know why more people on the CF don't take a day trip from Leon to visit, plus on a fine day the train journey through the mountains is pretty impressive.

Or even better — take four days to walk from León to Oviedo on the Camino del Salvador. If you think the view from the train is awesome, you would be gobsmacked by the beauty you walk through!

Margaret Butterworth · May 22, 2020

From Oviedo, I took a local bus up to the monuments and then walked back down. This seemed a much better way of doing it!

trecile · May 22, 2020

peregrina2000 said:
Or even better — take four days to walk from León to Oviedo on the Camino del Salvador. If you think the view from the train is awesome, you would be gobsmacked by the beauty you walk through!

I agree. It is pretty amazing!

peregrina2000 · May 22, 2020

Margaret Butterworth said:
From Oviedo, I took a local bus up to the monuments and then walked back down. This seemed a much better way of doing it!

Yes, there are buses and they go regularly. I think, though, that if you are about to start out on the Primitivo, walking the 3 km up with its 150 m of ascent is a good warm-up for the much more serious hills that await!

andylm65 · May 23, 2020

I took an extra day in Oviedo in order to visit “los monumentos “. It was a lovely day and luckily a Monday so there was free entry to the old palace. The other church was closed in 2018. I’d love to go again and the Salvador route looks gorgeous!

peregrina2000 · Jun 30, 2021

I think the Naranco powers-that-be have tagged me as someone who always wants to get Naranco news. I just got what looks like a mass email saying that the sites are now both open for tourism. If anyone is walking a primitivo soon, and if you are attracted to ancient architecture, these two places, within about a 3 minute walk of each other and a 45 minute walk up from behind the train station, are unmissable.