2 euro - St. Mary of Naranco - Spain - 2017 - UNC

The church of St Mary at Mount Naranco is a pre-Romanesque building on the slope of Mount Naranco, near Oviedo, the capital of Asturias.Ramiro I of Asturias ordered it to be built, in the middle of the ninth century, as a royal palace as part of a larger complex that also incorporated the nearby church of San Miguel de Lillo, 100 meters away. The exterior decorations, as well as the use of stilted arches mark the intended verticality of the composition. It was converted into a church at the end of the 13th century. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in December 1985.