Quintana (Principado de Asturias) (0)

Did you know that... Quintana

It is place and head of the parish of Villazón, and Llamas is a village belonging to that parish, obligatory step of the Primitive Way. They are located in the so-called Veiga Villazón, in a splendid valley formed by the River Nonaya, protected by the slopes of Mount Traviesas. Old writings speak of a monastery located in Quintana and that was donated by Sancha Rodríguez to the monks of the monastery of Belmonte at the beginning of the XIII century. These valleys must have been the greed of the rulers of the time. The name Llamas is synonymous, in Asturian, with llamarga, mudazal, barrizal, and can refer to how it should have been in the past, today fertile and green, a valley that extends to the Nonaya River.

To discover What to see in Quintana and Llamas?

The landscape that surrounds Llamas and Quintana is of a brilliant green offered by the fluvial valley and the rounded mountains that surround it. The village of Llamas has a dovecote, which, along the route of the Primitive Way, has become an identifying symbol of it. A little further away is the Llamas chapel, dedicated to the Virgen de Los Dolores, which hosts a famous pilgrimage every September. The Way of Saint James, on a long straight line, joins Llamas with Quintana, where its parish church, erected in the 18th century and recently restored, dedicated to Santiago, tells its long Jacobean history, as the remains found during the restoration work confirm that the origin of the temple dates back to the 13th century, even earlier, since some historians believe that it could have some link with the Monastery of San Salvador de Cornellana and that the temple might have been ordered to be built by a relative of the Infanta Cristina. Next to the church is La Fonte Santiago.

Festivities

Quintana and Llamas, together with the other places and villages in the parish, celebrate the festivity of Santiago on 25 July.

Curiosities

Parish, from the Greek word paroikía, means "close to the house". In Asturias the parish is a traditional form of administrative, religious and agrarian organization. The Statute of Autonomy of the Principality of Asturias establishes that the existence of the rural parish must be recognized as a traditional form of coexistence and settlement of the Asturian population. Continuing in this way with the organizational model and population, religious, cultural and economic, of the Asturian parish.

The Legend

The remains of old constructions found during the works carried out for the restoration of the church of Santiago have given cause to think that in the place and with the same location as the temple, there was a Roman villa. The remains of an old mill lead us to believe that the people who once populated the place were also dedicated to agricultural work. Another curious feature of this church is that its altar is oriented towards the west and not as in most of the temples pointing towards Jerusalem.