Logbook · 13 places

Church of San Miguel de Eiré

Pantón, Terra de Lemos, Lugo

1 Villages · 6 Monuments · 3 Nature · 2 Curiosities · 1 Food and drink

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Church of San Miguel de Eiré

Monument · Pantón, Terra de Lemos, Lugo

Remains of a 12th-century Benedictine monastic complex declared a Monumento Nacional (former Spanish heritage-protection designation) in 1964; above the crossing rises a rectangular tower spanning the full width of the nave, a unique solution in Galician Romanesque architecture. Tradition tells that the nuns who lived there abandoned it after an invasion of ants and withdrew to the nearby hamlet of Pedragude, from where they would watch their church from the crag known as A Pena da Monxa. Inside, the semicircular apse is decorated with paired columns whose capitals bear serpent heads; the chancel is reached through a triple triumphal arch that retains 16th-century wall paintings, and the north doorway displays an Agnus Dei between jambs carved with leaves ending in human heads.

Photo: Jose Antonio Gil Martínez. FREECAT from Vigo (CC BY 2.0)

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