Church of San Cristovo de Fornas

This was at the time that Pope Honorius III took the abbot of the Monastery of Oseira under his protection with all his possessions, including the “ecclesiam sancti Christofori de Fornia cum ómnibus pertenentiis”; in other words, the church of San Cristovo de Fornas and all its possessions.

Another, more recent text from 1357 also mentions the parish in which the church stands. In that same year, a monk from the Abbey of Oseira bought the property of the parishes of Santo Tomé de Veiga and San Cristovo de Fornas from Margarita Miguélez on behalf of his superiors. A century and a half later, the abbot and bishop of Tarsus, Suero de Hueca, granted Inés López the place named Quizudo, in this parish.

This is a Romanesque church dating from the second half of the 12th century, referred to by a very worn inscription on the tympanum of the main door. With a single nave and rectangular apse, it has a wooden ridged roof.

On the outside, you can admire various historic corbels as well as a beautiful window in the apse with a clear Romanesque tendency. Today it is known that the building was altered significantly, although there is no doubt that the nave and the apse can be classed as Romanesque.

It seems that in the apse of the church remains of 16th and 17th century, paintings were found that depicted the resurrection. It also seems that these paintings were done by the Maestro of Fornas, whose work can be found around Chantada.

He was a 16th century painter whose art can be admired in this church of Fornas, as well as in the nearby parish of Santa Baia de Adá. The Maestro of Fornas had a predilection for almost life-size figures, showing them with great severity and in stylised, seated poses. The colours that he preferred to use in his works were various shades of grey and red.