Village
Samos is a concello in the comarca of Sarria, in Lugo, at about 700 metres above sea level beside the Oribio river and the sierra of the same name, eleven kilometres from Sarria and 45 from the lucense capital. It has about 1,150 inhabitants spread across 119 population centres and 24 parishes. It is dominated by the Benedictine monastery of San Xulián, founded in Suebian times and considered one of the most important religious centres in Galicia; beside it a 9th-century Mozarabic chapel survives, and the Camiño Francés runs through the town. The economy rests on agriculture, livestock farming and growing rural tourism, with gastronomy as a draw; the Oribio is known for its eels and trout.
Monument
The mosteiro de San Xulián de Samos stands in an enclosed valley of the Lugo municipality of Samos, through which the Camino Francés passes; it is one of the oldest Benedictine monastic houses in the West, its foundation attributed to Martiño de Dumio in the 6th century and its renewal in the 7th century by Froitoso de Braga. The first written mention, from 665, records that it was rebuilt by the bishop of Lugo, Ermefredo; after the Muslim invasion, already under the reconquest of Froila I, it sheltered his widow and son, the future Alfonso II, and came to own two hundred villae. It burned in 1558 and again in 1951, which required it to be rebuilt; its Baroque church was raised between 1734 and 1748, and its Claustro Grande, from 1685 to 1689, is the largest in Spain. Beside the monastery stands the chapel of the Salvador, from the 9th century with Mozarabic traces.
Monument
Built between 1685 and 1689, at some 3,000 square metres it is considered the largest cloister in Spain; at its centre stands the statue of Father Feijoo, who took the Benedictine habit at Samos in 1690.
Monument
A small 9th-century Mozarabic oratory built of slate behind the monastery, with a trapezoidal plan and a horseshoe-arched door; it is the oldest surviving building of the complex and holds 10th-century wall paintings.
Nature
Beside the Mozarabic chapel grows a cypress some three centuries old and more than twenty-five metres tall, included in the catalogue of singular trees of Galicia; its presence gave the chapel beside it its popular name.
Curiosity
The Benedictine community of the monastery of San Xulián de Samos, founded according to tradition in the 6th century by Martín de Dumio and one of the most important in Galicia, preserves a library 31 metres long with around 25,000 volumes, gathered over the centuries and rebuilt after the fires of 1558 and 1951 and the exclaustration of 1835, when the monks did not return until 1880. It is one of the most notable monastic collections remaining in Galicia, within a complex that blends late Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles: the church, built between 1734 and 1748, has a Latin-cross plan with three naves, and the monastery also has the Claustro Grande, 54 metres to a side and the largest in Spain, raised between 1685 and 1689.
Nature
The serra do Oribio is one of the eastern mountain ranges of Galicia, stretching east-southwest through the municipalities of Samos and Triacastela, separating the two valleys; it borders the valley of the river Sarria to the north and that of the Lóuzara to the south, both fed by its slopes. It forms part of the Ancares-Courel special conservation area and reaches its greatest height at the Oribio peak, at 1,447 metres, with steep slopes dropping toward the valley floors. Along the range ran the old Camiño Real do Oribio, of pre-Roman origin and later called the Camiño de Castela, which linked the kingdoms of Galicia and Castile; references to this route appear in documents preserved in the Mosteiro de Samos and in the Pazo de Perros, in Calvor.
Activity
On leaving Triacastela the Camino Francés forks, and one of the two branches drops down the Oribio valley to Samos, somewhat longer but chosen by thousands of pilgrims so as to sleep in the shadow of the Benedictine monastery.
Monument
A small oratory from the late 9th century built a short distance from the monastery, with a horseshoe arch and masonry construction; it is one of the best-preserved pre-Romanesque buildings in Lugo. Also known as the capela do Ciprés, after a nearby cypress tree 27 metres tall, it preserves the structure of a Mozarabic oratory divided into a ministerial cella and a main nave, lined by a 12th-century stone bench. Inside it holds 10th-century frescoes with crosses, doorways, alfiz frames and floral decorations. It later served as an oratory for the monks of the monastery of Samos and afterwards fell into disuse, used as a shed for farming tools, until it was declared a Monumento Nacional (a former Spanish heritage protection category) in 1944.
Nature
The roof of the concello at 1,443 metres of altitude, in the foothills of the eastern sierras. Its slopes of heath and oak wood fall abruptly towards the valley where the monastery sits.
Curiosity
A monumental tree that presides over the courtyard beside the pre-Romanesque chapel of the Salvador and that has given it its popular name: the locals and the pilgrims know the ensemble as the chapel of the cypress.
Historical milestone
A devastating fire destroyed much of the Benedictine abbey of San Xulián de Samos in 1951, including its library, thirty-one metres long and holding twenty-five thousand volumes; the subsequent reconstruction restored to the complex the cloisters and outbuildings that can be visited today. It was not the monastery's first fire: founded, according to tradition, in the 6th century by Martiño de Dumio, it had already suffered another fire in 1558 that forced its complete rebuilding. The community was disbanded in 1835 and the monks returned in 1880. Among its outbuildings, the Claustro Grande stands out, built between 1685 and 1689, covering 3,000 square metres, the largest in Spain, and the baroque church, erected between 1734 and 1748, with a looped staircase reminiscent of the one at the Obradoiro in Santiago de Compostela.