Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Petín

What to see and do in Petín (Valdeorras, Ourense): 8 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 2 Nature · 1 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Petín

Towns near Petín

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Spain › Galicia › Ourense › Valdeorras › Petín

What to see and do in Petín

Petín
Village
Petín is a municipality in the province of Ourense, in the comarca of Valdeorras, in the heart of the Sil valley, inhabited since prehistory and drawing settlers for its gold-bearing wealth as early as Roman times; it was born as the council of Freixido and took its present name in 1835. It preserves the castro of Mones and two notable bridges: that of la Cigarrosa, of Roman origin and rebuilt between the 16th and 17th centuries, built over the Vía Nova that linked Braga with Astorga, with five arches of varying span, and that of Portomourisco, with a single ashlar arch, raised between 1702 and 1703 for the pilgrims heading to the sanctuary of As Ermitas. With about 860 inhabitants, at the foot of the Serra do Eixe, it recalls the defence its women made of the Ponte da Cigarrosa against the French in 1809.
Bridge of a Cigarrosa
Monument
Bridge over the Sil built in the 16th century and remodelled in the 17th, reusing an earlier structure of Roman origin; the Vía Nova, the imperial road linking Braga with Astorga, once crossed it. It has five arches of unequal size and shape on four piers, and takes its name from the ancient mansio of Forum Cigurrorum, in the territory of the Gigurri tribe; from the Roman bridge, courses of ashlar blocks survive on one pier and the foundations of another, now submerged. It was rebuilt in 1577 by Juan de Náveda and repaired again in 1904. A tombstone and Roman mosaics were found beside it, now in the Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Ourense (Ourense Provincial Archaeological Museum), and in 2022 a milestone (miliario) was discovered. Since a parallel bridge was built downstream, it is now used exclusively by pedestrians.
Bridge of Portomourisco
Monument
A bridge built between 1702 and 1703 to ease the passage of the faithful travelling to the shrines of the area; it crosses the river beside the place of Portomourisco, where its Marian chapel is also preserved.
Hillfort of Mones
Nature
A pre-Roman fortified settlement above the parish of Mones, evidence of the castro communities that occupied the Sil valley before Rome exploited the mineral wealth of these mountains.
Church of Santa María de Mones
Monument
The church of Santa María de Mones, known as “a nai de sete igrexas” for having recorded in its archives the births and deaths of other parishes such as Arnado, is one of the most important in the Valdeorras district. With a Latin-cross floor plan, it preserves a wooden coffered ceiling painted in white, black and red, and two eighteenth-century altarpieces: that of Christ, with Solomonic columns and bunches of grapes, and that of Saint Lucy, with estípite pilasters. Its bell tower was originally a watchtower reached by a spiral staircase, and its bells were praised in a poem by the Petín-born Rogelio Díaz. Together with the neighbouring church of San Miguel, it forms the core of the religious heritage of a concello of fewer than nine hundred inhabitants overlooking the Sil valley.
Valley of the Sil in Petín
Nature
The municipality stretches down to 300 metres on the valley floor, in a zone of transition between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic oceanic climate, with the serra do Eixe closing the southern horizon.
Roman milestone of la Cigarrosa
Curiosity
Roman road marker that appeared in 2022 in the vicinity of the Ponte da Cigarrosa, over the Sil; it confirms the passage here of the Vía Nova and the existence of the mansio of Forum Cigurrorum.
Sack of the parishes of Petín by Soult's troops
Historical milestone
The French columns devastated the valley in 1809 and burned forty-three houses in Petín; local memory recalls that the women of the place stood up to them on the bridge over the Sil during that retreat.