Logbook · 4 places

What to see and do in Melón

What to see and do in Melón (Ribeiro, Ourense): 4 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

How far each place is from the centre of Melón

Monastery of Santa María de Melón 200 m

Towns near Melón

What to see in Arnoia 6.7 km · 9 places
What to see in A Caniza 6.9 km · 18 places
What to see in Cortegada 6.9 km · 7 places
What to see in Ribadavia 7 km · 15 places
What to see in Carballeda de Avia 8.3 km · 4 places
What to see in Beade 10 km · 5 places
What to see in Crecente 12 km · 15 places
What to see in Pontedeva 12 km · 5 places

Spain › Galicia › Ourense › Ribeiro › Melón

What to see and do in Melón

Melón
Village
Melón is a concello in the comarca of Ribeiro, in the province of Ourense, crossed by the A-52 motorway between Vigo and Ourense, with around 1,100 inhabitants. It borders Avión, Carballeda de Avia, A Arnoia, Ribadavia and, already in Pontevedra, A Caniza and Covelo. It arose under the protection of the Cistercian monastery founded in 1158 by monks who came from Clairvaux with Abbot Giraldo, whose ruins have been a historic-artistic monument since 1931. It also preserves the parish church of Quins, from the late 16th century and linked to the same Cistercian order, and the peto de ánimas of Codesás, erected in 1856 and an object of great popular devotion.
Monastery of Santa María de Melón
Monument
The monastery of Santa María de Melón, founded by the Cistercian Order in 1158 thanks to a donation from King Alfonso VII, remained inhabited until 1835, when the Mendizábal disentailment forced the surviving part of the church to be closed off with a façade, today used as the parish church; much of the monastery's stone was sold to build the church of A Cañiza. Of the complex only the semicircular portal, flanked by cylindrical towers with loopholes, and the ruins of two medieval cloisters survive. In the church, the 12th- and 13th-century apse stands out, with a Gothic ambulatory and burial chapel that emulates that of the monastery of Oseira: ruins of great scale, unique in Galicia alongside those of Oseira and Sobrado. It was declared a historic-artistic monument on 3 June 1931.
Pools of Melón
Nature
The River Cerves, which rises at around 1,000 metres in the serra do Faro de Avión, strings together on its descent a succession of falls that have hollowed out of the rock pools of clear water known as mergeiras.
The founding of the monastery of Melón
Historical milestone
The monastery of Santa María de Melón, in transitional Romanesque style, was founded in 1158 by monks who came from Clairvaux, who for centuries organised the settlement and the vineyards of this westernmost corner of the Ribeiro: in the 13th century it came to hold possessions in Vigo, O Porriño and Redondela, from where it traded the wine of the banks of the Avia. It remained inhabited until 1835, when Mendizábal's disentailment caused its abandonment and ruin; much of its stone was sold to build the church of A Cañiza. Declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (a former Spanish heritage-protection category) in 1931, it preserves the semicircular portal flanked by turrets with arrow slits and the ruins of two cloisters, one of them from the 16th century with star vaulting, as well as the chancel with its Gothic ambulatory.