Church of Jesús de Nazareno (Cudillero)

Anyone visiting El Pito, in the parish of Piñera, to explore the surroundings of La Quinta will find, just outside its grounds, a building that at first glance seems to have come straight out of the Middle Ages. This is the Church of Jesús de Nazareno, a place of worship that painstakingly imitates twelfth-century Romanesque but actually belongs to a much more recent era.

It was built between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, at the height of historicism, the movement that looked to the styles of the past and reinterpreted them using modern means. Here the chosen model was Romanesque, and the result is a fascinating example of how medieval architecture was understood at the time: not as a ruin, but as a living language through which to convey solemnity and tradition.

The building was not conceived solely as a place of worship. It was designed as a church and pantheon at the initiative of Fortunato de Selgas, a figure closely linked to this corner of the municipality of Cudillero, which gives it both a religious and a commemorative character. This dual purpose goes a long way towards explaining the care lavished on its design and its relationship with the La Quinta estate.

Its inauguration in 1914 was attended by a very special guest: Infanta Isabel de Borbón y Borbón, Princess of Asturias, who presided over the ceremony and thus linked her name to the church's history. For travellers, a visit is a fine opportunity to round off a stroll around El Pito and discover a unique piece of early twentieth-century Asturian heritage, where a taste for the past and the ambition of an era go hand in hand.