Monastery of San Salvador de Lourenzá
Mosteiro de San Salvador de Lourenzá / Lorenzana
(Lourenzá / Lorenzana, Lugo)
The monastery of San Salvador de Lourenzá was founded before 947 by Count Osorio Gutiérrez, who also endowed it financially in his will of 969. It seems to have been a double monastery, with monks and nuns, according to the text of a donation made in 958 by Ordoño IV of León, as well as other documents of the time, although this point is a matter of debate. The founder is considered a saint and is known as Conde Santo (Holy Count).
Osorio Gutiérrez joined the monastery he had founded as a monk. According to tradition, he travelled to the Holy Land and returned with an ancient tomb, where he was buried, which was placed in the old church of Santa Maria. At the end of the Middle Ages, the monastery went through a period of decline during which it lost many of its possessions, a situation that worsened with the arrival of the commendatory regime. In 1505, like many other monasteries of the time, it was incorporated into the congregation of San Benito de Valladolid.
It was suppressed in 1835 with the disentailment, and in 1878 it suffered a fire. Between 1910 and 1942, it temporarily recovered its monastic life with the arrival of a community from the monastery of Samos. The monastic complex had two churches: the church of San Salvador, for the community, and the church of Santa María, a parish church. It lost its medieval appearance when a complete reconstruction began in the first half of the 17th century, a work that lasted until the 18th century; the current buildings date from this period, although it still preserves some medieval remains, including the tomb of Conde Santo.
Sepulcher of the Conde Santo
Drawing by José Villaamil (1860)
Real Academia de la Historia
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- PÉREZ GONZÁLEZ, José María; dir. (2018). Enciclopedia del Románico en Galicia. Lugo. Aguilar de Campoo: Fundación Santa María la Real
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- YEPES, Antonio de (reed. 1960). Crónica General de la Orden de San Benito. Vol. II. Madrid: Atlas
Lourenzá is located in the north of the province of Lugo, between Mondoñedo and the Cantabrian coast