Santa Maria de Lara: The first depiction of Christ in Spain

Santa Maria de Lara is a Visigothic pre-Romanesque church, believed to contain the earliest representation of Christ in Spanish religious art. It is located near Quintanilla de las Viñas, not far from Burgos in Spain. The church has been placed by scholars between the 7th and 10th centuries, although archaeologists have yet to confirm its exact period of construction. The church was abandoned after the Moors invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 711, and was rebuilt in the 10th century.

It was granted 'National Monument' status on 25 November 1929. Extensive excavations in the 1930s revealed that the site was inhabited from early times, and many of the artefacts uncovered, such as funerary stelae, dolmens, and objects from Roman villae, are now housed in the Museo Provincial de Burgos. Today, Santa Maria de Lara, with its unique orientation, stands as a monument to Spain’s past and a mystery waiting to be unraveled.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons