Virtual visit to the monasteries of Galicia; Get to know them in a different way from home.
Virtual visit to the monasteries of Galicia. The geographical situation of Galicia, the end of the Earth until the Renaissance, with its mountains, its valleys, its forests, its rivers and its coast have seduced different settlers since ancient times who colonized its entire geography and left abundant samples of their spirituality. Later, the discovery of the tomb of the Apostle Santiago attracted the main monastic orders that emerged in Europe and left their mark on monasteries, churches and other religious constructions that we now put at your fingertips, so that you can faithfully know our impressive monastic heritage.
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Enjoy the visit.
SAN MARTIÑO PINARIO MONASTERY:
Monastery of San Martiño Pinario
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Immaculate Square 5
Santiago de Compostela – A Coruña
The complex, measuring 20,000 square meters, is one of the largest buildings of this kind in Spain and currently houses the Major Seminary and a hotel establishment. In addition, it has a museum with a permanent exhibition, including the church with altarpieces and the choir stalls.
The construction of the church and the monastery took place over more than a century, from the beginning of the church, in 1590, until the completion of one of the interior cloisters, in 1747. It is known that a Primitive building in the same place, of Romanesque invoice, and of which there are hardly any remains.
The church of San Martiño Pinario brings together elements of the late Renaissance and Baroque. The plant has a single nave, with side chapels inscribed in a rectangle. The immense central nave is covered with a barrel vault with false coffered ceilings, and the three side chapels with coffered vaults. The large ribbed dome, supported by pendentives, provides a very marked aerial sensation. Inside, the chapels, made for the most part, in the 18th century, as well as the three altarpieces, from the same period, to which is added the splendid low choir, from the 17th century, where scenes from life are represented. of the Virgin. Outside, the facade of the Church, which is accessed through some beautiful baroque stairs, is structured in three vertical bodies that correspond to the internal division of the temple, and that represent a decorative profusion absent in the rest of the walls . It is covered with a multitude of figures of saints and is crowned, in the upper part, with the scene of San Martiño.
The Monastery itself is made up of two cloisters: that of the Offices and that of the Portería, built in the 18th century. Outside, its main facade stands out; It is made up of three sections: the front and two side towers with a square plan. The main door is framed by four large Doric columns and above it, a niche that carries the image of Saint Benedictine. On the cornijón, four pinnacles and the comb with a royal shield and a silent crown. Finishing the set, a sculptural group of San Martiño splitting the cape with a poor man.
Discover it here: Monastery of San Martiño Pinario
SAN PEDRO DE ROCAS
San Pedro de Rocas
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San Pedro de Rocas
Esgos – Ourense
In this monastery, unique for being carved out of natural rock, we will not find light Gothic structures or harmonious Renaissance proportions. It is an ancient, rough, almost primitive site, witness to the first hermit settlements in these lands. The value of San Pedro de Roca is anthropological rather than aesthetic.
The presence of the first occupants of this place dates back to the year 573. According to the inscriptions on the founding tombstone, preserved in the Provincial Archaeological Museum, its founders were seven men who chose this beautiful enclave to retire to a life of prayer. Later, in the 9th century, the knight Gemodus rediscovers the place on a hunting day and settles there, being elected abbot by his companions. In later centuries, this monastery, never too rich or too inhabited, became dependent on Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil and San Salvador de Celanova. In 1923 it was declared a Historic-Artistic Monument.
The 6th century monastery church is one of the oldest known Christian temples. Its three naves are carved out of the rock. The ceiling of the central nave has an opening through which light enters from the outside. A pilaster serves as an altar. In the wall of the chapel on the left, a hole opens in which the tomb of the knight Gemodus was supposed to have been. In it, a fresco wall painting, dated between 1175 and 1200, was discovered, which shows images of the apostles and a world map.
We can also see some sculpted tombs in which recumbent figures are represented. In the ground of the church and the atrium numerous tombs are excavated in the rock. The bell tower is located at the top of a huge rock formation almost 20 m high that gives this place its name.
An arch serves as an access to a small space, used until recently as a parish cemetery. It is quadrangular in shape and is closed by a wall. From this point there is a path that goes down the slope of the mountain and reaches the Fuente de San Bieito, also carved out of the rock.
Discover it here: San Pedro de Rocas
SAN SALVADOR DE CELANOVA
San Salvador de Celanova
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Main Square
Celanova – Ourense
Styles
Renaissance
Baroque
Romanesque
Religious order
Benedictines
Discover it here: San Salvador de Celanova
SANTA MARÍA DE FERREIRA
Santa Maria de Ferreira
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The Village of Mato
Pantón – Lugo
The closed Monastery of the Bernardas Mothers, first Benedictine, then Cistercian, always reserved for women, has the peculiarity of being the only one in all of Galicia that retained its function from its creation to the present.
This architectural complex was built in various stages over five centuries. The Romanesque church is dated in the XII century. The cloister is a work from the 15th century. The rest of the spaces were built in the 18th century.
It is surrounded by a solid wall. On the access door to the enclosure, flanked by two buttresses like pillars, we see the shield of the Order of the Cistercian of Castile. The monastery, a two-story building made of granite ashlars, has a two-section cloister, with semicircular arches supported on Alcarrian capitals. This space houses the tomb of the Countess Dona Fronilde, abbess of the monastery during its heyday in the 12th century.
The church is located forming a right angle with the facade of the monastery. It is made of rectangular silver, with a single nave and a semicircular apse. Among the figures kept inside, a polychrome wooden sculpture of the Virgin with the Child stands out. We can also see the graves of Don Diego de Lemos, leader of the Irmandiñas revolts, and his son.
Discover it here: Santa Maria de Ferreira
SANTA MARÍA DE OSEIRA
Santa María de Oseira
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Oseira
San Cristovo de Cea – Ourense
Styles
Baroque
Romanesque
Religious order
Cistercians
Discover it here: Santa María de Oseira
Tags: coronavirus, Cov-19, Galicia, monasteries, tourism, virtual tour
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