Religion

Route 7 – Sar Collegiate Church

Built in the XII century on the bank of the Sar river it is, next to the Cathedral, the church that keeps the most of its original Romanesque stonework.
On the outside, the hardy flying buttresses built between the XVII and XVIII centuries to protect the northern walls and avoid their collapse are particularly noteworthy: whether it was because of a technical error during construction, because of the daring elevation of the lateral naves, because of the sliding of the unstable terrain, which is frequently flooded by the river, on which the church seats, or because of the will of those who worked in its construction, the interior walls and columns are visibly leaning, which gives it a unique appeal and forced the remake of the barrel vault in the XVI century.
The interior impresses everyone who visits thanks to the tilt of the columns towards the lateral naves, which causes a sensation of instability. The baptismal font, to the right of the main door, is an interesting archeological piece from the XII century.
Through the sacristy one reaches the cloisters, the only one in the city in Romanesque style. Only one of the wings remains, everything else was created during the XVII and XVIII centuries. A large collection of archeological and liturgical pieces are on display inside.
The Collegiate Church is also home to the Collegiate Church of Sar Museum, founded in 1975, where pieces of great historical and documentary value, such as the temple’s foundational scroll, can be found. The archeological section is made up of a series of pieces from the old Romanesque cloisters, done by Master Mateo or his disciples.

Route 20 – San Martiño de Laraño church

Baroque church with a rectangular floor plan, square apse and sacristy close to the south wall. Gabled, and the fourth in the main chapel, and higher than the rest of the nave. The walls are plastered and painted white, except in the body of the presbytery. It shows a façade with little decoration, with a linteled door and a window above it. Next, and separated by a cornice, a space for the saint with pilaster ornaments, a cornice of moldings and ball pinnacles imbued in the canvas of the wall, in it we can see the figure of the patron saint of the parish, San Martiño. At the corners of the roof, it is crowned with ball pinnacles. In the center of the façade stands the bell tower with four openings of semicircular arch opening, after cornice and pinnacle ornaments, in a small dome with a pinnacle at the top with a wrought iron cross. It has an atrium with trees, a transept and a music box, and on the north wall that frames its land there is a fountain and a washing place.
The church is next to the train track.

Route 20 – Laraño stone cross

It is one of the five stone cross that are in the parish of Laraño, which borders the Sarela River and its tributaries.

Route 20 – Divino Salvador de Vidán chapel

It is known for being the seat of the parish of Vidán and for its name, Divino Salvador. The parish itself is called Santiago (or Divino Salvador de Vidán).

Route 18 – Guadalupe stone cross

The Guadalupe cruise is located in the Vite neighborhood, in Santiago de Compostela, and is part of the chapel of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe complex. It is not an isolated transept, but is part of an architectural ensemble that includes the chapel and other elements such as a fountain crowned with a bust of Vicente Ramos.

Route 18 – San Xoán stone cross

The San Xoán de Vite stone cross is located in the parish of Vite, in Santiago de Compostela. It is a granite cross with images of Christ crucified and the Virgin of Sorrows, located on a natural rock, possibly in a place that once had a pagan significance.
A regular stop for pilgrims visiting Santiago de Compostela.

Route 16 – San Pedro Church

Walking down San Pedro Street, following the path that leads the French Way pilgrims to Porta do Camiño in the opposite direction, we find this neoclassical church from the XVIII century. It maintains some remainders from the primitive construction of the old monastery of San Pedro de Fóra, from the XII century, upon which the new brickwork was built.
Remains of burials were discovered in its atrium, very probably from monks and pilgrims from the XII to the XV centuries buried in the old Benedictine monastery, which provided hostelry services to the apostle’s devotees far before the Catholic Monarchs’ Inn was built.
Inside the temple stand out the sculptures of Ferreiro.

Route 16 – San Domingos de Bonaval Church

XIV century. Gothic with Romanesque reminiscences. The church was built in the fourteenth century following the canons of mendicant architecture. It consists of three naves separated by semicircular arches and a stylized main chapel with high windows and a ribbed vault. Through the convent you can access its interior, in which the four Gothic tombs located on both sides of the altar, the Virgins with the Child from the fifteenth century and the chapel of the Rosary, which contains Baroque altarpieces made by Pedro Taboada and Francisco Castro Canseco, stand out. Of great interest is the Pantheon of Galicia, located in a side chapel of the church, where, among others, Rosalía de Castro, Castelao, Alfredo Brañas, Ramón Cabanillas and Francisco Asorey rest. For this reason, this temple is a place associated with Galician memory. The cloister houses an interesting Gothic transept. It is currently used as a venue for exhibitions and concerts.

Route 16 – San Caetano Church

This temple was founded in 1701 by Captain Bartolomé de Verea y Vázquez and his wife Doña Ángela de Cora y Ponte y Andrade. In contrast to the baroque style predominant in Santiago at the time of its construction, this temple stands out for its great simplicity and for the marked influence of popular architecture. Its floor plan is a Latin cross with a straight chevet and the transept protruding in elevation, as the transept and the side arms rise above the level of the gabled roof that covers the main nave... The walls are covered with plaster, except for the central street of the main façade and the finishes of the openings that leave the granite ashlar visible. Above the façade, topped with a semicircular arch with a smooth moulding, there is a rectangular window over which the arms of the founders are displayed. The complex is crowned at the vertex with a rectangular belfry in which two semicircular arches flank by pilasters that support a triangular pediment topped with pinnacles.

Route 17 – Mount Gozo cross

The Metal Cross of Mount Gozo is a monument commemorating the visit of Pope John Paul II to Santiago de Compostela in 1989 on World Youth Day. This event contributed to further popularizing the Camino de Santiago internationally. The monument was built in 1993 and is located on Monte do Gozo, an emblematic place of the Camino de Santiago from which pilgrims can glimpse the towers of the Cathedral of Santiago for the first time.