Logbook · 16 places

College of Our Lady of the Antigua

Monforte de Lemos, Terra de Lemos, Lugo

1 Villages · 8 Monuments · 1 Nature · 3 Activities · 2 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

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College of Our Lady of the Antigua

Monument · Monforte de Lemos, Terra de Lemos, Lugo

A college founded in 1593 by Cardinal Rodrigo de Castro and built in Herrerian style, which is why it is called the Galician Escorial; its picture gallery preserves two oil paintings by El Greco and five panels by Andrea del Sarto. The works, designed by the Jesuit architect Andrés Ruiz and continued by Juan de Tolosa and Juan Bustamante, began under the patronage of the cardinal, archbishop of Seville and great benefactor of Monforte, so that the Jesuits could educate all of Galicia there. They ran it until their expulsion in 1767; it continued as the Real Seminario de Estudos, the seed of a future university, until 1773, passed in 1777 to the Dukes of Alba, and since 1873 has been run by the Piarist fathers, who during the civil war saw it turned into a military hospital for the wounded from the Somosierra front.

Photo: Ramon Piñeiro (CC BY-SA 2.0)

What to see and do in Monforte de Lemos