Santa Maria Real de Piasca is a Romanesque Church near Potes in the Picos de Europa. There seemed to be many churches, monasteries, and hermitages in the area around Potes and we had time to visit three.
Santa Maria Real de Piasca
Santa Maria Real de Piasca was a Monastery founded in the 8C-9C and by the 11C was apparently equal in importance to Santa Toribio, with many possessions. Today all that remains is the church, halfway up a mountainside, and absolutely gorgeous, and the foundations of its cloister. The remarkable fact about this ‘monastery’ was that it was mixed – it included both monks and nuns – but eventually the monks took over – nothing new here! The current church dates from the 12C.
Carvings on a Romanesque Church
The main doorway is extraordinarily ornate and I could have spent a long time looking at the carvings.
The side door, slightly hidden away, is also ornate, with carvings of fantastical birds, strange figures, and a boar hunt.
There are more carvings on the frieze at the top of the walls, underneath the roof, and around the windows
Flowers at the Church
The flowers at the entrance to the buildings were just lovely – dahlias, hostas, geraniums, lavatera, impatiens, and large bunches of grapes.
This is a magical spot – a must-visit if you are in this area. On both occasions we went to this Romanesque Church near Potes we were alone with the silence…
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[…] the Romanesque churches in Zamora. It also looked much cruder, perhaps just earlier than the first Romanesque churches we found in the Picos de Europa on our last […]
restlessjo
The carvings are fabulous, aren’t they? And what a landscape! Love the photos, Candy 🙂 🙂