Logbook · 12 places

Monastery of San Xulián de Samos

Samos, Sarria, Lugo

1 Villages · 4 Monuments · 3 Nature · 1 Activities · 2 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

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Monastery of San Xulián de Samos

Monument · Samos, Sarria, Lugo

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.

Photo: Bernardo Baggio (CC BY 2.0)

What to see and do in Samos