Village
Bande is a concello in the province of Ourense, in Galicia, capital of the comarca of Baixa Limia, on land inhabited by the querquennos tribe until its subjection by Rome. The Romans traced the Vía Nova here, between Braga and Astorga, and built the camp of Aquis Querquennis, or A Cidá, today facing the das Conchas reservoir, formed by the Limia river as it crosses the municipality. It preserves the Visigothic church of Santa Comba, a Monumento Nacional since 1921 (a former Spanish national heritage-protection designation), together with archaeological remains such as mámoas and the castros of Rubiás, Sarreas and Pena Maior. Near the Roman camp, at Baños, there was once a spa with waters at 48 degrees, recommended for rheumatism and skin diseases, today partly flooded by the reservoir. It has about 1,460 inhabitants in twelve parishes.
Monument
Visigothic pre-Romanesque temple from the second half of the 7th century, the only one from that period preserved intact in Spain and the last remnant of a monastery to which the relics of San Trocado, a disciple of the apostle Saint James, were transferred. With a Greek-cross plan inscribed in a rectangle eighteen by twelve metres, with a lantern tower over the crossing, it was built using the Visigothic vara as its unit of measure (0.80 metres), in dry-jointed ashlar masonry and with horseshoe arches of moderate over-run, following the model of Early Christian mausolea. Abandoned after the Muslim invasion, Alfonso III commissioned its restoration in 872 from his brother Odoario, who founded a double monastery there, for both monks and nuns. It has been a Monumento Nacional (National Monument, Spain's historic heritage designation) since the Royal Decree of 11 August 1921.
Monument
A 2.5-hectare enclosure with a wall 3.20 metres thick built of granite laid without mortar, occupied from the last quarter of the 1st century until 120 by a cohort attached to the Legio VII Gemina; it has been a Bien de Interés Cultural since 2018.
Monument
A few metres from the camp, the official stopping point on the Vía Nova offered rooms, stables, bread ovens and a circular well to travellers covering the route between Bracara Augusta and Asturica Augusta. The complex, popularly known as «A cidade», was built on the banks of the river Limia, today beneath the waters of the das Conchas reservoir, and was occupied from the last quarter of the 1st century to the 120s of the 2nd century as a camp, and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries as the road station itself. The Ruta da Rainha Santa, a pilgrimage route to Santiago that coincides on its initial stretch with the old Vía Nova, also passes through the site. Declared a bien de interés cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 2018, it has an interpretation centre housing a museum and several explanatory rooms.
Monument
A bridge of Roman origin, declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (Spain's heritage designation in force between 1931 and 1985) in 1944 and later submerged by the As Conchas reservoir, on the River Limia; it only shows again when the reservoir level drops in the summer low water.
Nature
A fortified settlement where a Galaico-Roman warrior's head was found, now on display at the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Ourense; the municipality also has the hillforts of Sarreas, Fervenza, Seoane, Lobosandaus and Pena Maior.
Curiosity
A funerary inscription from the old church of Os Baños commemorating a person who died in Christ in the year 545; it is one of the oldest known Christian epigraphs in the area and is kept in the museum in Ourense.
Nature
The Baños de Bande are Roman baths located in the parish of dos Baños, next to the Roman camp of Aquis Querquennis. They form a complex of stone pools and individual bathtubs fed by a spring whose waters, sodium bicarbonate, fluoridated and lithic, emerge at 46 degrees with a flow of 14 litres per second; they are considered suitable for dermatological, respiratory, hepato-digestive and rheumatological conditions, which sustained a spa built in the early 20th century. The construction of the das Conchas reservoir affected the baths, which today are often covered by the waters of the river Limia whenever it rises.
Nature
Reservoir on the river Limia that in 1949 flooded the Roman camp of Aquis Querquennis and the Ponte Pedriña bridge; during low-water periods the water recedes and exposes the barracks, granaries and V-shaped ditch of the military enclosure. It takes its name from the place called das Conchas, in Santa Cruz de Grou (Lobeira), next to the dam, and covers 645 hectares spread across the municipalities of Lobeira, Muíños and Bande; the water also covered the Baños de Bande. It was the first large reservoir built by Fenosa. High concentrations of cyanobacteria have been detected in its waters due to discharges from nearby pig farms.
Nature
Offshoots of the Serra do Leboreiro that culminate in the Portela de Lamas, at 1,146 metres, with the Fonte Santa at 1,088; they close off to the west a municipality of twelve parishes looking out over the Limia valley.
Monument
It explains the camp, the mansio and the course of road XVIII through the material recovered since 1975, when the electricity company holding the reservoir concession authorised the first excavations, directed by Antonio Rodríguez Colmenero.
Monument
The Ponte de Cadós, of Roman origin, crosses the río Cadós at the spot of the same name, in the parish of Cadós, concello of Bande (Baixa Limia, Ourense), which takes its name precisely from this bridge. Like the nearby Ponte Pedriña, it was submerged when the embalse das Conchas reservoir was built, and only emerges during severe low-water periods, when the reservoir's level drops.
Monument
The parish church of the place of Os Baños, beside the thermal spring whose waters emerge at close to 48 degrees; its fabric preserves the early Christian funerary inscription dated to the year 545.
Nature
A balcony over the das Conchas reservoir from which one takes in the sheet of water of the Limia and, in the background, the summits of Fontefría; it is one of the signposted observation points of the Baixa Limia-Serra do Xurés Natural Park.
Curiosity
The warrior's head of Rubiás is a granite sculpture of a male head, dated to the 1st century and considered one of the most representative examples of Gallaecian-Roman sculpture at the height of the hillfort culture. It appeared in 1935 in the castro of Rubiás, next to the río Cadós, crowning a village fountain and completely out of context. It has traditionally been considered part of a statue already mentioned in 1609 by the celanovan Mauro Castellá Ferrer. Very carefully executed, it measures 30 by 30 by 20 centimetres, with almond-shaped eyes without pupils, a prominent nose and a mouth with a melancholic set; the neck bears a torque, whose front part is not preserved. It is kept in the Museo Arqueolóxico Provincial de Ourense.
Historical milestone
At the end of the 1st century AD Rome opened the Vía Nova between Bracara Augusta and Asturica Augusta; its third mansio, Aquis Querquennis, was built in the lands of Bande, beside the Limia, with a camp occupied until the year 120 and thermal baths.
Activity
A gastronomic event in Bande devoted to fish, in an inland concello whose larder depends on the río Limia and the das Conchas reservoir; it is served at a popular tasting accompanied by local wine.