Foncalada

The Foncalada fountain is a drinking water fountain, traditionally considered by historiography to have been built on the orders of the Asturian King Alfonso III in the city of Oviedo and located in the street of the same name, Foncalada. Within pre-Romanesque art in Asturias, it is the only example of its kind preserved to the present day, as well as the only vestige or remnant of a construction with a public utility purpose from the High Middle Ages in the city. It is considered the oldest civil monument in continuous use in Spain.

Its construction is based on Roman civil works and according to research carried out by Francisco Borge, recently associated with the discovery of Roman remains in Calle de la Rúa, it was built next to the Roman road that linked the north and south of the region and which also passed in front of the church of San Julián de los Prados. According to the study of its inscriptions, it is believed that its construction dates from the first half of the 9th century and is attributed to King Alfonso II.

Its first documented appearance dates from the end of the 11th century. Its name comes from an inscription found on it, fontem calatam, which can be translated as "invoked fountain". According to recent archaeological work carried out by Sergio Ríos and César García de Castro, it has been shown that it was a monumental building used for bathing, with an important religious symbolism, in relation to the identification of the potentially curative waters with Jesus Christ, invoked as "Salvs" in the inscriptions that completely cover the front of the monument. Within the inscriptions on the apex of the pediment is the Victoria Cross, characteristic of Alfonso III, with the apocalyptic Alpha and Omega.

Architecturally, the fountain is rectangular in shape, approximately four metres wide, with a gabled roof. It has a small temple with a central opening as a doorway, framed by a round arch with perfect voussoirs. This space with a barrel vault houses the fountain through which the spring used to flow. All of this is built in ashlar stone with a triangular pediment. The feeding channel is formed by a large box of limestone blocks. The last archaeological intervention uncovered the original drainage channel and also revealed part of the original ornamented ridge and an ashlar with the inscription TIENTEM, which was missing from the aforementioned text inscribed on one of its pediments and which belonged to the word PERCVTIENTEM.

Restored in the 1990s, it was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1998 as part of the Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of Asturias.

Article obtained from Wikipedia article Wikipedia in his version of 18/08/2022, by various authors under the license Licencia de Documentación Libre GNU.

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