Today we start our series of visits to the Romanesque churches in this land. They are many and varied and we will go visiting them, one by one.
We are in the Parish Church of Santa Maria de Tourón which is one of the nine parishes of the municipality of Ponte Caldelas. It belongs to the province of Pontevedra, is very near its capital. The church is located beside the PO-532 road about 3 kilometers from the centre of Ponte Caldelas.
Coordinates to find the location of Ponte Caldelas: 42.389318, -8.502583
Our previous visit to Ponte Caldelas: Three Churches in A Insua, a parish of Ponte Caldelas.
The church was built between the late twelfth and early thirteenth century with a single nave and apse in a rectangular shape in both cases. It underwent an extensive transformation in 1727. A new part of the north wall was added and the south wall and the outside of the apse of the church were rebuilt.
We are approaching the church. It can be clearly seen to the right the part that was added in 1727.
These are the architectural elements that are preserved from the Romanesque period:
the part of the interior of the apse;
the doorway of the main façade (west façade);
in the south wall 11 corbels, an old door which today is walled up and three buttresses;
in the north wall there is a door that opened directly to the outside of the church but after the reconstruction of the church in 1727 the Romanesque door now gives access to a small corridor leading to the current exit door (or entrance door).
Inside the pointed arches, the triumphal arch on two columns highlights and the capitals of large scrolls and smooth leaves.
We see the church from an exterior wall and to the left the north wall and the main or west facade.
We enter the premises of the church.
Corpus Christi Day is celebrated today. The parishioners have prepared these carpets made of flowers as is traditional in Galicia.
Coat of arms of noble lineage of the Pazos de Probén.
This is the south wall that preserves the Romanesque corbels. We can see to the right the old door which today is walled up.
This is a statue located in the outside of the apse that indicates the year 1727.
We return to the main façade to see the Romanesque doorway.
The doorway has two slightly pointed archivolts, four columns in which the archivolts rest, capitals of plant decoration. The tympanum is decorated with a cross and supported by smooth “mochetas”. The two “mochetas” are the architectural elements that support the tympanum.
Detail of the “cruceiro” (stone cross).
Now we will enter the interior of the church.
End of Part 1.
Click Here for Part 2: Romanesque Church of Santa María de Tourón, Ponte Caldelas, Pontevedra. Part 2.
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