The semicircular canted apse is very similar to the Basilic of Veranes, at 50 Km from Pavia, and considered to have been built in the fifth or sixth century, because of its shape and for the presence of exterior buttresses. Considering that both are located in two communities of Roman Spain origin, that were inhabited in the Visigothic period, it seems reasonable to think that constructions that previously existed in the area may have had an influence in the initial design of Santianes, of which Veranes is a good example. Apses of this type are also found in previous Spanish churches, like San Bou in Menorca (fifth century), Aljezares in Murcia (sixth century) or Recópolis in Guadalajara (sixth century).

The immersion baptismal font, a system that was not been used in Spain since the sixth century, recalls the existing ones in churches in the peninsula in the fifth and sixth centuries, like San Pedro de Alcántara in Málaga (sixth century), Idanha a Velha in Portugal (sixth century) or Aljezares, and in some basilics in the Balearic Islands although in Santianes it is less deep and there are not the usual seven steps: three to descend; the central one, and three to ascend, according to the description of San Isidoro.

The type of floor found, of a clear Roman or Paleochristian origin has not been utilized in the rest of the known Astur architecture.

All the decoration found both in the church in the nineteenth century as well as in later excavations that conform an undoubtly Visigothic complex.

The remains of the central nave that have been preserved, which are proven to have been built by that king, state a clear precedent of the late Astur architecture, at least in the structure of its naves, but the square pillars are not new in Spanish Pre-Romanesque architecture, with precedents in different periods, as the already mentioned of Son Bou and Aljezares or San Pedro de la Nave in Zamora (seventh century). The round arches in brick were also quite usual in Roman architecture in Spain, and it is possible that there had been constructions with this type of arches in the surroundings of Pravia, for example, in Veranes or in the Flavium Avia, as it seems that the palace complex of Silo was built upon an ancient Roman town.

The rest of what has been found in it, like the present chevet and crosings, the western façade and its tribune and all the elevations of the church, including its presept covering, are later reconstructions which we may consider more or less adequate but its original structure is not guaranteed, since they do not provide reliable information regarding its original state and it may probably generate a wrong idea.

All that has been said confirms Santianes de Pravia as a basic link at the moment of studying the origins of the Asturian art, about which so much has beeen speculated. To do that it is very important to bear in mind the time it was built, a few years later than Carlomagno came to the throne (771) and much earlier than the empire and Carolingian art existed, as well as the lack of communication in those times of the Astur kingdom, since until Silo, its court had been secluded in the mountains in Cangas de Onís. On the other hand, the existence of the complicated acrostic, added to the clear cultural level of Beato de Liébana, that in that very reign was writing his "Comments to the Apocalypse" keeping a theological discussion of great level with Elipando, the Mozarabic bishop of Toledo, lead us to consider that the Asturian kingdom had not been kept unaware of the Roman and Visigothic cultural development in the peninsula. We must also consider that, according to the Chronicles of Sebastian, already in times of Alphonse the First (739-757), many churches had been built and restaured, although nothing of them has been preserved, what makes it unquestionable the continuity of the Visigothic culture in the beginnings of the Asturian art, which, for the time being, until new findings take place, we can only analyse in Santianes de Pravia and Veranes. All of these circumstances of the Asturian kingdom in the times that the church was built, lead us to consider that the fundamental element that Santianes provides to the late Asturian art, which consists on the the utilization of round arches upon pillars in the structure of the naves, must be considered as a leap backwards within the Hispanic building tradition, rather than attributing it to probable external influences.

If we start from that base and bear in mind that, as we have seen, a great amount of the remains preserved from the original construction, have clear precedents in monuments of different phases of the previous Spanish art, we reach the conclusion that we are in front of a building that is the result of the fusion of several heterogeneous elements. In it we find a plan that recalls the basilic structures of the Paleo-Christian type mixed with semicircular casted chevet, three naves with flat roof, portico and baptistry with independent access from the outside, with so dissimilar elements like the round arches in brick upon pillars, similar to those used in Roman architecture; a Visigothic type crossing; the decoration, also Visigothic, that could have been reutilized or developed for the church according to techniques and styles that still prevailed, or the utilization of the portico as a royal mausoleum. All of that makes Santianes de Pravia a clear example of the theory we have exposed in the introduction of this study, in the sense that eclecticism is the funadamental characteristic of all Spanish Pre-Romanesque Art, except during the reigns of Alphonse the Second and Alphonse the Third. In fact this church is already a clear precedent of the later Asturian art, but it had been built prior to the times of Alphonse the Second, when the design of this type of buildings was normalized, utilizing without any prefixed norm both in its structure as in its decoration, different elements that were already available, and out of them, only one, although a basic one, was kept as a fixed characteristic in all the later Asturian art, except in the Ramirense period: the series of round arches upon square pillars.

It is also to bear in mind in this case the possibility that what is considered a new contruction of king Silo could have been the reconstruction of a basilic that already existed from Paleo-Christian times. Though within the assimilation we propose for Santianes of different previous architectural elements, the type of construction and the rest of the mentioned characteristics are prefectly acceptable for a building of the times of king Silo; the presence of a baptismal immersion font is beyond thinking at the end of the eighth century. If on top of that we consider that our church stands in what had been a city of Roman origin that, as Varenes, had been inhabited until then, and the plan structure, so similar to the remains of the church of Varenes, it would be quite logical to think that it could have contained a basilic of a previous period upon which the construction of Silo would have been erected, keeping a great part of the shape of the plan and of the baptismal font. But we are afraid that after so many modifications suffered throughout the centuries it will be very difficult to reach a definite conclusion both on the subject as well as on the original elevations of this church.

Nearest friendly lodgings of Asturian Pre-Romanesque Art