Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Leiro

What to see and do in Leiro (Ribeiro, Ourense): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 2 Nature · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Leiro

Monastery of San Clodio 850 m

Towns near Leiro

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Spain › Galicia › Ourense › Ribeiro › Leiro

What to see and do in Leiro

Leiro
Village
Leiro is an Ourense concello of around 1,500 inhabitants, in the comarca of Ribeiro, on the banks of the river Avia, in a land of slopes given over almost entirely to vineyards within a dry, warm microclimate with winter humidity. It is centred on the monastery of San Clodio, founded in 928 and later converted into a Cistercian abbey; abandoned after the disentailment, it now operates as a hotel-monument devoted to lodging and dining. The municipality is organised into nine parishes, including Berán, Gomariz and Vieite, each with its own festivities, such as those of Santa Margarida in Berán or the Grape Harvest in Leiro itself.
Monastery of San Clodio
Monument
Monastery of Leiro (Orense), on the banks of the river Avia, whose origins tradition places in the 7th century, although the earliest document dates its foundation to 928. It joined the Cistercian order in 1225, as a daughter house of Melón, and enjoyed its greatest splendour in the 13th century, when the three-nave, three-apse church was built between 1220 and 1250, with a rose window -now bricked up- one of the few medieval Cistercian façades in Galicia. It retains two cloisters, one Renaissance in style, from the school of Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón. Abandoned after the Mendizábal disentailment of 1835, it was refounded in the late 19th century as a Benedictine monastery with monks from Samos, a community that died out at the end of the 20th century; it was declared a national monument in 1931. Today it is a heritage hotel, and San Clodio is considered a cradle of Ribeiro wine.
Reservoir of Albarellos
Nature
A reservoir completed in 1971 on the River Avia, with an arch dam 90 metres high and 285 metres along the crest holding back 90.7 cubic hectometres; its water surface is shared between the districts of Leiro, Avión and Boborás.
The terraces of the Avia valley
Nature
Dry stone terraces stepped above the river Avia which have supported the vineyards since medieval times. This terraced landscape, the work of generations of diggers, defines the appearance of the heart of the Ribeiro.
The founding of the monastery of San Clodio
Historical milestone
The monastery of San Clodio, in the parish of the same name, in Leiro, has its origin in an agricultural community that tradition places as early as the 6th century, though it is documented with certainty only from the 10th century: its endowment as a double monastery is dated to the year 928, by don Álvaro and doña Sabita. In the mid-12th century it joined the Order of Saint Benedict, and in 1225 it passed, through the monastery of Melón, to the Cistercians. Declared a Monumento Histórico Nacional (a former Spanish heritage-protection category) in 1931, no remains survive from before the 16th century except the façade of the original church — one of only three Cistercian façades preserved in Galicia — and its Romanesque beams; the present church, with three naves and three apses, was built between 1220 and 1250. It served as a barracks after the disentailment and has been a hotel since 2000.