Church of Santa María de Castelo

The Romanesque elements are in windows with a wide opening inside, at both sides on each wall, one of delicate decoration in the apse and the other on the triumphal arch. Also it preserves inside the stone bank and two cabinets in the apse. The corbels are decorated with geometric or vegetal elements.

The main door has a semicircular arch and two archivolts with bevel-cut and decorated with saw-tooth moulding. The archivolt is decorated with blind arches with a ball inside. The inner archivolt is composed of a bead moulding. A continuous impost with undulating stems on one side and a double order of saw-tooth on the other serve as a seat to the arches. Two columns have original and very stylized capitals. Inner jambs are topped in quoins decorated with saw-tooth and human heads, on which the tympanum rests.

In the tympanum we can see three blind arches on which a cross is flanked by scroll forms that wound it to each side.

The south gate has a single archivolt decorated with blind arches and a ball inside, and the arch that outlines it with saw-tooth. They are supported on a thick impost of balls on one side and rings. Once again, columns support the archivolt with similar decoration to the front door of stylized plant motifs. The quoins have a smooth prow and the other two rolls and also the saw-tooth edge.

Enlargement of the presbytery leaded to the transfer of the apse window, his wealth was evident. There are bases decorated with fine rosettes, as well as the front and bottom surface of the archivolt and impost line. Here we highlight the capitals decorated with fine paired birds.

Inside, the triumphal arch is also profusely decorated. There are chess motifs on the outer archivolt and motifs of blind arches inside. The following one is plain. The imposts also repeat the decorative motifs used in the doors. The capitals of the columns are decorated with leaves and balls on the right side, and a head appears among the ones on the left.

Inside, a holy water font and a baptistery are kept; both of Romanesque style and probably dated form the same period as the church.

It stands out the nearby remains of the fort of Castelo that dominates a breathtaking view over the canyon of the river Miño and undoubtedly offered a splendid control of territory to its inhabitants. It is celebrated even today in September the Festival "Das Fachas" (that is, “bunches” of straw with a flame that Galician people used to use as a torch in order to light up).