Village
Baños de Molgas is a concello in the comarca of Allariz-Maceda, in the province of Ourense, situated in the valley of the Arnoia river and known since Roman times for its thermal waters, when it was called Aquis Salientibus, mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary; the Roman bridge and archaeological finds in the area attest to this presence, confirmed in 2011 by the discovery of inscriptions dedicated to the “Nymphs of Molgas”. Its spa has operated since 1873. In the 17th century, a resident commissioned masses at the hermitage of Medo, the origin of the later Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de los Milagros. Its territory also holds the chapel of Santa Eufemia de Ambía, with horseshoe arches, and the sanctuary itself, the destination of a pilgrimage in September. It has about 1,500 inhabitants.
Monument
A pre-Romanesque church of the 9th century with three naves and three apses separated by horseshoe arches, a rarity in Galicia; declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (Spain's heritage designation in force between 1931 and 1985) by the decree of 3 June 1931, it preserves stone lattices and a Roman altar.
Monument
The sanctuary of da Nosa Señora dos Milagres do Medo stands on Mount Medo, in Baños de Molgas, built between 1731 and 1768, in a Baroque style that heralds Neoclassicism; it is the province's leading Marian pilgrimage site, and the complex, with its guesthouse and former seminary, was declared a national monument in 1982. Its granite ashlar façade, with seven doors and several towers, resembles a great stone altarpiece and is similar to the Obradoiro façade of Santiago Cathedral, built seven years later. Around the church seven Stations of the Cross chapels were set up with scenes of the Passion in wooden statues, inspired by the Portuguese sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte, though of the original project of fourteen only six were built, between 1825 and 1857.
Curiosity
A group of rock carvings preserved in the parish of Presqueira, one of the municipality's thirteen, where a cruceiro also stands; it documents an occupation of the Arnoia valley long before the Roman use of its waters.
Monument
The Moncho Borrajo Museum and Foundation, opened in 2011, was installed in the former railway station of Baños de Molgas (Ourense), on the line linking Zamora with Ourense, with materials donated by the Galician comedian Ramón Borrajo Domarco, better known as Moncho Borrajo, born in this town on 24 December 1949. Trained in technical architecture and fine arts in Valencia, he made his debut as a comedian in 1982 and built much of his career in the nightclubs of Barcelona and Madrid, besides appearing on the programme Un, dos, tres…, which made him very popular; he combined comedy with painting and writing. The museum devoted to him shares the town with the thermal tradition that made the municipality famous.
Nature
Springs listed as a site of geological interest which surface in the bed of the Arnoia itself as it passes through the town; the main spring rises at 49 degrees and its waters are bicarbonated, sodium-rich, silicated and oligomineral.
Activity
The building was raised in 1873 on the bank of the Arnoia over mineral-medicinal springs already exploited in Roman times, according to the objects that came to light when the spring was fitted out; those waters gave the town its name. Today three sources are used, two at 49 degrees and that of the pool at 28, in a thermal complex that is the driving force of the concello and one of the classic stops of Ourense spa culture.
Monument
A small church of pre-Romanesque root in the parish of Ambía, with ashlar walls and narrow openings that betray a fabric much earlier than the later alterations; it is one of the most singular monuments of the concello.
Monument
The Santuario de Nuestra Señora de los Milagros, on the slope of Monte Medo, is one of the most important pilgrimage centres in Galicia. The present temple, with a plan of three naves separated by columns and a four-tower façade preceded by a monumental staircase in front of the atrium, was built by order of the bishop of Ourense and completed in 1771; it was canonically crowned by Pope Paul VI in 1963 and declared a National Historic-Artistic Monument in 1982. Outside, seven chapels display scenes from the Way of the Cross, and since 1869 the sanctuary has been in the care of the Vincentian Fathers. Every 8 September, thousands of devotees from across the province of Ourense come to the pilgrimage in honour of the Virgen de los Milagros.
Nature
A hemmed-in stretch of the river Arnoia between the spa town and the hamlet of A Acea, where the channel narrows between rocky walls and native woodland; a waymarked riverside path runs along it at mid-slope.
Nature
A headwater wetland situated on the upper stretch of the Arnoia and included within the river's natural area. Its waterlogged meadows and peat bogs hold the water that feeds the flow downstream and host flora typical of wet meadows.
Nature
Two springs that rise on the very bank of the Arnoia with sodium bicarbonate, calcium and silicate waters, whose temperature at emergence runs from 28 to 49.5 degrees centigrade depending on the point of emission.
Activity
Three bathing areas fitted out on the banks of the river within the concello, A Ansuíña, A Acea and Vide, which in summer work as river beaches and serve as the starting point of the canyon routes.