Dormeá (San Cristovo) · Area: 8.29 km² · See on the map · Directions
Festivals
- San Cristovo - second Saturday of July
Villages and hamlets
- A Algaria
- Barrio
- O Batán
- Boavista
- O Campo do Ollo
- O Cando
- A Chavella
- O Cruceiro
- Dormeá
- Eixón
- Fornelos
- Insua
- O Marmoiral
- A Pereiriña
- O Piñeiro
- Porcelle
- O Priorato
- Proente
- Ribadiso da Fraga
- Santalla
- Segade
- Sería
- Tixosa
- Vilanova
- O Vilar
What to see
- Pazo de Vilanova (civil architecture)
- Parish church of San Cristovo de Dormeá (religious architecture)
- Chapel of the Priorato de San Brais, in O Priorato
History
The parish of Dormeá, one of the most often mentioned in medieval documents, still has the small church of San Cristovo, a simple 12th-century Romanesque building. It belonged to a convent founded in 1152 by Doña Lupa, daughter of Pedro Froilaz de Traba, Count of Galicia, and wife of Don Munio Peláez, Count of Monterroso.
Its boundaries were set by Ferdinand II of León in 1157. About a century later, the troubadour Fernán Páez de Talamancos mentions the convent more than once in his cantigas de maldizer (songs of mockery), along with its abbess at the time, his «coyrmaa» (cousin) and friend. The church has a single nave and a rectangular apse with a barrel vault; it is entered under a pointed triumphal arch resting on engaged half-columns.
The side doors are old, but the main door is a modern repair. In this parish, on the edge of the main road, stands the Pazo de Vilanova, known as A Casa Grande. The original building seems to date from the 16th century, although it was altered later, and today it looks plain and rural, partly rendered and partly in bare granite.
It has a fine corner balcony on slender columns with a Baroque balustrade. The coats of arms show the roundels of the Castro de Lemos family, from whom the owners of the house descend, and the bands of the Ulloa family. From the 17th century it belonged to the Prado y Saavedra family. It has a simple chapel, separated from the house by a small stream, and a large estate around it.
