A Relic Chamber Older Than the Cathedral Around It

The Camara Santa, the relic chamber at the heart of Oviedo's cathedral complex, traces to the ninth century reign of King Alfonso II of Asturias, whose small Christian kingdom in the mountains of northern Spain positioned itself as the guardian of relics and traditions that could no longer be safely kept in the Muslim-ruled south. The much larger Gothic cathedral that surrounds the Camara Santa today was built centuries later, mainly between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, meaning the relic chamber is in effect an older nucleus that a far grander building grew up around rather than a chapel added to an existing cathedral.

Within the Camara Santa sits the Arca Santa, an oak chest reinforced with silver, said by tradition to have been carried from Jerusalem through North Africa to Toledo ahead of the seventh century Persian invasion and later Muslim conquest, and then onward to Asturias as the last unconquered Christian refuge. The Sudarium is one of several relics tradition holds the chest to contain, alongside fragments and objects associated with other biblical episodes, making Oviedo's claim, like Rome's Santa Croce, a collection built around one legendary transportation event rather than a single relic's individual discovery story.