Melide

Melide is part of the territory known as “Tierra de Mellid”, and is considered the geographical centre of Galicia. It is especially known for being the place where the Jacobean routes of the Primitive Way and the French Way merge.

• Chapel of San Antonio: Baroque “pazo” (manor house), with its chapel, belonging to the Obra Pía de San Antón, founded in 1671. Also known as “La Colegiata” (the “Collegiate Church”), as it was founded with educational purposes, and was known too as the “Pazo” of the Marquis of Corvera in the 19th century. Since 1960 it is the seat of the local council.
• Museum of Terra de Melide: institution preserving historical and cultural memory, now occupying the old pilgrim hospital.
• Chapel of San Roque: built in 1949 with materials from the demolished medieval churches of San Pedro and San Roque. The main doorway, one of the most beautiful in medieval Galician art, comes from the old church of San Pedro. Inside we find the medieval tombs of Melide-born notaries public Diego García, Roi Lopes and that of the latter’s wife, Inés Eanes.
• “Cruceiro” of Melide: for many this is the oldest “Cruceiro” (calvary) in Galicia, probably from the 14th century.
• Church of Sancti Spiritus: it belonged to the now lost monastery or convent of the Third Order of Saint Francis, founded in the 14th century. Only a small side chapel remains of the old church, with a vault and pointed triumphal arch. In the 15th century, Sancho Sánchez de Ulloa rebuilt the convent church in memory of his mother Inés de Castro. The resulting church had a rectangular apse with a ribbed vault and two Gothic side sepulchres. The magnificent Baroque main altarpiece was sculpted in 1690 by Francisco de Castro Canseco.
• Church of Santa María de Melide: a listed national monument, it is the gem of Romanesque style in Melide. Inside it holds figurative capitals, with strong symbolic meanings, as well as Renaissance paintings. The altar is one of the few Romanesque altars that have survived to this day in Galicia.