Pantheon of Asturian Kings

The Pantheon of Asturian Kings in a chapel of Nuestra Señora del Rey Casto in the Cathedral of San Salvador, Oviedo, Spain. It is the burial place of many of the rulers of the medieval kingdoms of Asturias and León.

The name Nuestra Señora del Rey Casto ("Our Lady of the Chaste King") alludes to Alfonso II of Asturias, known as "the Chaste", considered the founder of the cathedral. The original royal pantheon was located in the 9th-century Church of Nuestra Señora del Rey Casto on the same site. On the initiative of Tomás Reluz, Bishop of Oviedo, that pantheon and the church were demolished in the early 18th century due to their poor state of conservation. Both were rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1712.

In the 9th century Alfonso II of Asturias, king of Asturias, ordered the erection of a church of Our Lady in his new capital of Oviedo, with the intention of establishing a royal pantheon as a final resting place for himself and his wife, queen Berta. This church later became known in his honor as the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Rey Casto ("Church of Our Lady of the Chaste King").

The primitive Pantheon of Kings was located in the narthex of the church. Rather than the church being entered through the narthex as is customary, the main entrance was through doorway in the southern arm of the church, with the narthex being dedicated entirely as place of entombment for Asturian monarchs.

The primitive pantheon was a small oblong room 20 feet (6.1 m) wide (the same width as the principal nave of the church), 12 feet (3.7 m) deep, and somewhere between 8 feet (2.4 m) and 10 feet (3.0 m) in height. The ceiling was of wood, and over the pantheon was the upper choir of the church, which, as in the churches of San Miguel de Lillo and San Salvador de Valdediós, was located in the narthex. On either side of the royal pantheon, were small closet-like rooms, one of which contained the staircase to the choir upstairs. The other small room may have been for storage of items used during religious services. The pantheon was connected to the main sanctuary of the church through a wide door near the main altar of the church; a small window also connected the pantheon to the sanctuary. Both, according to the chroniclers of the time, were closed with heavy iron bars that nearly prevented any sunlight from entering the pantheon.

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