Editing Ramiro I of Asturias (section)

==The ''Ramirense'' style in architecture==
The art and architecture of Ramiro's reign forms the [[Pre-Romanesque art and architecture|Pre-Romanesque]] ''Ramirense'' phase of [[Asturian art]]. His court was the center of great splendor, of which the palace and church of [[Santa María del Naranco]] and [[San Miguel de Lillo]] are testimony. On the southern slopes of Mount Naranco, near the city of Oviedo, Ramiro I ordered the construction of the palace of Santa María del Naranco and a church known as San Miguel de Lillo or Liño. The church collapsed in the thirteenth century, and today only about a third of the original survives. Related service buildings did not survive even as ruins.  Another example of Ramirense architecture is the church of Santa Cristina de Lena, near the municipality of [[Lena, Asturias|Lena]], some {{convert|30|km|mi}} from Oviedo. The palace and the two churches have been designated [[World Heritage Site]]s by [[UNESCO]].

Ramirense architecture introduced [[barrel vault]]s made of [[tufa]] (a relatively lightweight limestone). These were novel not only with respect to earlier architecture of the region but in terms of the European architecture of the period, including that of Muslim Spain, which used wooden roofs.