When you see a Gothic or Renaissance church, it is easy to foresee that the temple could be an evolution of a Romanesque church, which over the centuries has been expanded and screed. But in the Asturias Central Mountain you can see a different evolution of an old Romanesque church which was amended as a result of industrial development. Specifically I mean the church of Santa Eulalia in the parish council Ujo Mieres, whose original building was modified to Romanesque early in the twentieth century to facilitate the extension of the route of the railway line to transport the then successful coal production.
In Ujo there was a small Romanesque church that dates back to the XII-XIII, with a single nave and east-west which was a step in the Asturias Camino de Santiago. But in 1922, with plans to expand to more routes passing the railway line next to it, with the intention of enhancing the transport of coal from the mining valley, it was decided to demolish the historic Romanesque church and in turn, build a new north-south orientation. This new church of Santa Eulalia de Ujo is what you can see now next to the railway station, one of the main squares of the small town of Mieres.
But the funny thing is that when building the new church it was decided to use three elements of the previous Romanesque building. The most important is the old apse, now you’ll see a side chapel on the east side of the new temple. Also the cover was reutilized, now facing north and keeps the original sculptural groups. Finally, they also used bow decoration that appears on the current relocated apse. Therefore, we can say that the present church of Santa Eulalia de Ujo is a Romanesque church but it is a curious Romanesque church. Yes, during the visit of this church, the pastor moved complaints about the cracks that are forming in the church building as a result of rail traffic to what is taking Renfe response. In the end will they return to reform the church to save a new possible demolition?
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Santa Eulalia photos: Juan, Albrecht Hariwald, Rebeca, pablinphoto.
