Village
Lourenzá is a municipality in Lugo province, in the Mariña Central comarca of Galicia, situated in the valley of the Masma river, among the ranges of the Galician Massif; its capital, Villanueva de Lorenzana, stands beside the river 66 kilometres from Lugo. It has around 2,100 inhabitants and grew up around the monastery of San Salvador, founded in the 10th century and closed by the 1835 disentailment; the monastic complex has been designated a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 1994, as has the nearby castle of Tovar. Its fertile lowland, also watered by the Baos and Batán rivers, gives its name to the faba de Lourenzá, the white bean that sustains the local market gardens.
Monument
Founded in the 10th century by Osorio Gutiérrez, the Conde Santo, as a family monastery. Its Baroque façade, the work of Fernando de Casas Novoa in the second third of the 18th century, is considered a direct forerunner of the Obradoiro in Compostela.
Monument
An early Christian sarcophagus of veined marble, white and purple with blue streaks, in which the monastery's founder was buried in the 10th century; legend tells that he brought it from the East and that it arrived alone, by sea, on the coast of A Mariña.
Nature
A valley sheltered among hills where the faba galaica and faba do marisco varieties are grown; its mild climate and deep soils explain why the local bean earned recognition of its own as a geographical indication.
Curiosity
Faba de Lourenzá, a bean covered by a protected geographical indication, benefits from the valley's continental climate, with abundant rainfall of 1,200 to 1,400 millimetres a year and mild temperatures of 12 to 14 degrees, and from the area's loamy and silty loam soils. Its market has been documented since the 18th century, with fairs on the 9th and 28th of every month, and it gained importance in the 1970s and 1980s amid the decline of the dairy sector; since the creation of the Festa da Faba in 1990 a market became established that by the early 21st century reached 600 tonnes of annual trade. It is grown in the faba galaica and faba do marisco varieties, and is sold dry, whole, clean and separated from the pod after harvest.
Activity
Faba de Lourenzá, a bean with a protected geographical indication, is grown thanks to a continental climate of abundant rainfall and mild temperatures; its market has been documented since the 18th century, tied to the fairs held on the 9th and 28th of every month. In the 1970s and 1980s the decline of the dairy sector spurred its cultivation, and since the festival was created in 1990 the wholesale faba market grew in importance until it reached 600 tonnes a year. The town council built the Lonxa de Horta, Flor e Faba, and in 2000 the Xunta promoted the designation of origin, which also covers fabas from other municipalities of the Mariña lucense. The festival, held since 1990 on the first weekend of October, brings together producers and traders and is the main event for the product.
Monument
A fortified house in Isabelline Gothic style that Antonio de Tovar, a knight of Charles V, had built in 1530 and which was never finished; it was declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (a historic heritage protection status, predecessor of today's Bien de Interés Cultural) in 1949 and dominates the valley of Lourenzá. The oldest documents, from the late 12th century, name it Torre de Canedo, already in ruins by then; on top of it, Antonio de Tovar, a close relative of Pardo de Cela, built a less defensive fortress in the early 16th century, with wider windows. It was inherited by Brianda de Tovar y Pimentel and passed in 1548 to the Vázquez de Seixas family; it was later inhabited, sometimes by several at once, by different tenant families who left their mark on the building. Restored, it can be visited today.
Monument
A stone bridge over one of the streams of the valley of Lourenzá, on the road that pilgrims of the Camino del Norte follow between Mondoñedo and Abadín; the concello also preserves the Ponte da Pedra.
Historical milestone
Count Osorio Gutiérrez endowed in the valley, in the 10th century, a Benedictine monastery to which he retired after making the pilgrimage to the Holy Land; his early Christian sarcophagus, brought according to tradition by sea, remains in the abbey church.