The ermita of Santa Maria de Quintanilla de las Viñas, although one of the most important examples of pre-Romanesque architecture and sculpture in Spain, was unknown to archaeologists until 1927.
Padre Enrique Flórez, writing in 1772, mentioned the building in connexion with the reported existence of Roman inscriptions in its vicinity, but, as he had not seen it, gave no description. J. A. Cean Bermudez, who likewise had not been on the spot, published a somewhat confused account of certain inscriptions. From Cean Bermudez, Hübner copied three enigmatic monograms said to be ‘in aedicula S. Mariae de las Viñas prope Quintanilla, non longe a Lara oppido’, and published them both in his Inscriptiones Hispaniae Latinae and Inscriptionum Hispaniae Christianarum Supplementum.