The parish was constituted as an ecclesiastical administrative unit from the fourth century onwards, but it was not until the period between the eighth and ninth centuries that it appeared with a very stable legal and administrative organisation. It is difficult to specify how this process developed in Asturias during the Middle Ages, although it is believed that it must have occurred throughout the eleventh century. At that time, the concept of parish was not fully consolidated and that of ‘ecclesiae’ or ‘monastery’ had to be taken into account. In a document dated 20 January 905 in the Book of Testaments of the Cathedral of Oviedo, Alfonso III and Jimena donated the Church of San Julián outside the walls of the city of Gijón to the Church of Oviedo. Although in the council of Gijón there are three parishes dedicated to San Julián (Roces, Somió and Lavandera) and all three are located outside these old walls, it is assumed that the one cited in the document is the predecessor of the current church of Lavandera since it is mentioned in a context of churches near that town. In the Becerro Book of the Cathedral of Oviedo (1385) the parish of ‘Santollano de Lavandera’ is mentioned as a parish, integrated into the Archpriestship of Gijón, dependent on the Deanalgo. The current parish church is from the eighteenth century but the primitive temple was in another place, in a field near the road to Caldones.
SAN JULIÁN DE LAVANDERA
