The church of Santiago de Peñalba is located in the town of Peñalba de Santiago, belonging to the municipality of Ponferrada, in the region of El Bierzo (Castilla y León, Spain). It is one of the most representative architectural gems of pre-Romanesque Mozarabic art. Built at the beginning of the 10th century on the initiative of San Genadio de Astorga, it was inaugurated in the year 937 by his disciple Abbot Solomon. The church is the only building that remains of a monastic complex that has now disappeared. This mountainous area, full of hermit monasteries and churches since the 7th century, deserved in its time the name of "Tebaida berciana". Its location in the center of the Montes Aquilanos, the most rugged area of ​​the Montes de León, facilitated the isolation sought by the ascetic saints of the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries, such as San Fructuoso and San Genadio. The figure of San Genadio is relevant, insofar as he is considered the promoter of the spiritual and eremitical renaissance of El Bierzo area. It has been declared a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC) and has been a National Historic-Artistic Monument since 1931. History The kingdom of León was, from its birth, a political space of meetings and disagreements inhabited by a "border society", which had its own aesthetic concept. The art of the kingdom of León is a unique, singular art, for a simple reason: because it was a very plural society, rich in cultural nuances, and in constant transformation. It is in this context of «medieval coexistence» - Christian, Jewish and Muslim - in which the territories changed their dimensions and status almost from one day to the next due to Muslim «razzias», Christian «riots» and pacts, in which the origin of Santiago de Peñalba is located. The church of Santiago de Peñalba was designed by a Christian mind, that of San Genadio; it was planned by another Christian mind, that of Solomon, but built and decorated by an Arabized Christian community that included excellent master builders, painters and sculptors. Everything points to the fact that whoever worked in the church was a specialized and organized workshop, whether they were muladí, ex-muladí or Islamic, from Al-Andalus. It was the splendid time of the monastery that, as such, disappeared around the year 1283. The church was built in the first half of the 10th century (between 931 and 937)