in hunting down magic and the black arts, very widespread in Asturias at the time. He also fought the Normans successfully, defeating them in Gijón and A Coruña. Paradoxically, he enjoyed a time of peace with his traditional enemies, the Muslims, which from an artistic point of view allowed him to substantially renew Pre-Romanesque's architecture and decorative style, giving rise to the so-called Ramirian style. Ramiro I was succeeded by his son Ordoño I, who inherited a very solid kingdom from a military perspective, a condition that let him use subjects from the kingdom of Asturias to re-populate abandoned cities on the other side of the mountains, such as Tui, Astorga and León. He measured his military might against the Arabs with varying results; in the battle of Clavijo (year 859) he easily defeated them, though six years later, at Hoz de la Morcuera, his army, led by one of his generals, suffered a defeat, halting the intense re-population work of the first part of his reign. The first of the works from this period, the Palace of Santa María del Naranco, involved a significant stylistic, morphological, constructive and decorative renovation of Pre-Romanesque, supplementing it with new, innovative resources, representing a leap forward with respect to immediately previous periods. Built as a recreational palace, it is situated on the southern side of Monte Naranco facing the city, and was originally part of a series of royal buildings located in the outskirts. Its character as a civil building changed in the 12th century when it was converted into a church dedicated to St. Mary. This palace's innovations amazed chroniclers, who repeatedly mention it over time. A case in point is the Crónica Silense, written around the year 1015, about 300 years after its construction, and which, on describing Ramiro I, states that "(...)he built many constructions, two miles away from Oviedo, with sandstone and marble in a vaulted work: (...) He also made (...), a palace without wood, of admirable construction and vaulted below and above,...". What marvelled the chroniclers for so many centuries were its proportions and slender shapes, its rich, varied decoration and the introduction ofelongated barrel vaults thanks to the transverse arches, allowing support and eliminating wooden ceilings. This solution, timidly advanced in the Holy Chamber, fully matured in Santa Maria del Naranco. The palace, on a rectangular ground plan, has two floors; the lower level, or crypt,