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Monastery of Santa Cristina de Ribas de Sil

Parada de Sil, Terra de Caldelas, Ourense

1 Villages · 5 Monuments · 4 Nature · 3 Activities · 4 Curiosities · 2 Historical milestones

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Monastery of Santa Cristina de Ribas de Sil

Monument · Parada de Sil, Terra de Caldelas, Ourense

Image of Parada de Sil, not of the place itself.

Benedictine monastic complex, now disused, set on the banks of the Sil river, in the Merilán chestnut grove, beneath Mount Varona, in the parish of Cagide (Parada de Sil, Ourense). Its church, one of the finest examples of Galician rural Romanesque with a transition to Gothic, was built between the 12th and 13th centuries, although the first written records go back to the late 10th century; it was one of the most important monasteries of the medieval Ribeira Sacra, with a jurisdictional estate reaching as far as Cabeza de Meda and an economy sustained by vineyards and chestnut trees, which still shape the surrounding landscape. In 1508 it became a priory dependent on the monastery of San Esteban de Ribas del Sil, the start of a decline that culminated with Mendizábal's disentailment in 1835. It was declared a bien de interés cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 2008.

Photo: La fabrica de nubes (CC BY-SA 3.0)

What to see and do in Parada de Sil