Oviedo, Spain

In 722 a small Christian kingdom took shape in the Asturian mountains, and Oviedo became its capital within a century. What survives from that moment is the reason the city matters beyond its region: a group of buildings, raised between roughly 800 and 850, that belong to no later style and are grouped under the name pre-Romanesque. Santa María del Naranco was built as a royal hall and converted to a church, and its upper storey — barrel-vaulted, with open loggias at both ends and carved medallions along the walls — is unlike anything else standing from ninth-century Europe. San Miguel de Lillo, a few steps up the slope, keeps a third of its original length and its carved door jambs. San Julián de los Prados, on the northern edge of the city, is the largest of the group and retains an extensive scheme of wall painting. Below them Oviedo itself is a pleasant, prosperous provincial capital: the cathedral holds the Cámara Santa, the old town is arcaded and full of cider houses, and the coast at Gijón is half an hour away. The Lakes of Covadonga and the Picos de Europa lie to the east.