Mondoñedo Cathedral: Located in One of The Most Beautiful Villages in Spain
This is a continuing series of photographs from our Galicia Road Trip (with a few stops in Asturias) this past August.
In my last few posts, we expanded our Galicia road trip into the neighboring region of Asturias where we visited the stunning Playa de Peñarronda and Cudillero, one of northern Spain’s most beautiful cities. It was now time to return to Galician soil as we began our descent down to the province of Ourense. Our first stop was a small village I discovered while researching the region for the creation of my pretty darn remarkable itinerary, Mondoñedo.
Mondoñedo, a 30 minute drive from our hotel in Castropol, Asturias, is a small town and municipality in the Galician province of Lugo. The town has a population of less than 5,000 and occupies a sheltered valley among the northern outliers of the Cantabrian Mountains. The town was declared a national cultural-historical site in 1985 and it has also been named One of The Most Beautiful Villages in Spain. By who, you ask? La Asociación los Pueblos más Bonitos de España (The Association of the Most Beautiful Villages of Spain), that’s who.
Catedral de Mondoñedo
The Association was set up in October 2010, inspired by the success of similar associations in other countries. Its list now features over 100 settlements. Entries are reviewed from across the country and include villages in the Canary and Balearic Islands with populations of less than 15,000 people. It bases its selection on 40 strict criteria, including recognized architectural or natural heritage, conservation of façades, cleaning and upkeep, controlled traffic, parking, and care of flowers and green spaces.
The town’s main attraction is the Catedral de Mondoñedo, a Roman Catholic cathedral featuring a combination of Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles, with most of the structure being built between 1219 and 1243. Its two imposing three-tiered Baroque towers call attention to its limited height, a very rare feature. Because of this, the building was commonly known as the kneeling cathedral.
Its façade exemplifies the fusion of diverse architectural styles throughout its history, a result of renovations and expansions. It comprises three large pointed arches that correspond to the three interior naves. In the central pointed arch, a rose window, five meters in diameter, features polychromatic stained glass. Below it, a testament to its early Romanesque style, is the main portal, formed by three archivolts supporting three slender columns on each side, topped with carved capitals.
The current temple is a three-aisled building with a ribbed vault supported by pointed arches. The different architectural styles in which it was built are the result of expansions and renovations over time.
In the presbytery stands the impressive Rococo altarpiece, the work of Francisco Terán. The sculptures depicted in its two gilded sections are by the local artist Antonio de Castro and the Lugo-born sculptors Baamonde and Riobó.
The oil murals on the transept vault by the Asturian painter Terán depict four scenes from the Old Testament. These works constitute one of the most important 18th-century murals in the province of Lugo.
The stained-glass windows scattered throughout the cathedral illuminate the interior. Its most prominent feature is the 13th-century rose window, which retains the original central circle of the earlier Romanesque rose window depicting Christ the Savior. The remaining stained glass was reconstructed in the early 20th century according to medieval designs.
At the top, on either side of the main nave, we can see the organs. Documentary evidence indicates the existence of these instruments in the Middle Ages. However, due to their poor condition, extensive reconstruction was necessary in the 16th century. At the beginning of the 18th century, Bishop Muñoz y Salcedo commissioned the current instruments from Manuel de la Villa Elizondo, an organ builder from the city of Salamanca. The local artist Bernabé Seares was responsible for carving the Baroque organ cases that can be seen today.
The Sacristy is a work of late Gothic architecture from the early 16th century. Built under the orders of Bishop Diego de Soto, it consists of four vaulted sections, three of them divided by transverse arches with intricate rib vaulting.
The front of the room features a two-tiered gilded Baroque altarpiece mounted on a cabinet, with canvases depicting Saint Peter, Saint John the Evangelist, and Saint Paul in the first tier, and the Pietà in the second.
The old Chapel of Solitude was endowed in 1666 and features an altarpiece with four columns and a curved pediment, all marbled and gilded. In the center, where the Dolorosa (Our Lady of Sorrows) once stood, is an 18th-century carving of a seated Ecce Homo. Below it is a glass case containing a 17th-century Dolorosa, and to the sides are carvings of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Francis Xavier.
The Chapel of the Immaculate Conception features a large Plateresque altarpiece, gilded and polychromed, with three tiers. The niches display carvings of Saint Sebastian (18th century), Saint Catherine (16th century), and Saint Anne with the Virgin Mary as a child, a 15th-century English sculpture brought to the region during the persecutions of Catholics.
The Chapel of Christ of the Good Death is Neoclassical, dating from the late 18th century, and consists of a single section with four composite columns. The main image is the Christ of the Good Death, depicted with the face of a young man and life-size.
The Chapel of Saint Francis of Assisi consists of a single section with a niche, two columns, and a triangular pediment, all marbled and perfectly gilded. The image in the niche is a sculpture of Saint Francis of Assisi, a copy of the one by Mena. Above the pediment is a medallion with a beautiful relief depicting the translation of Saint James to Galicia, supported by angels.
The Cathedral and Diocesan Museum was once the old chapel of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. In the first of five rooms, you’ll find a gilded and marbled Rococo altarpiece, a single-tiered structure with three sections and four simple Solomonic columns. In its central niche is a 17th-century carving of the Immaculate Conception, and its side sections are occupied by two polychrome wooden carvings of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.
In one of the main display cases in the room is the celebrated collection of episcopal shoes embroidered in silk and gold, once worn by prelates on each of the Cathedral’s major solemnities. The oldest date from the 18th century.
The fourth room is dominated by a 17th-century altarpiece entitled “Penitent Magdalene.” It is a simple Renaissance-style shrine designed to house the Gothic image of Saint Mary Magdalene, reclining with a book in her hand. Its previous location was the chapel dedicated to her in the cathedral.
The Chapter House is the room where the Cathedral Chapter, the group of priests responsible for overseeing worship in the cathedral and ensuring the building’s upkeep, regularly met. The side wall is decorated with 18th-century canvases.
The cloister that we see today is the work of Diego Ibáñez Pacheco from Santander, hired in 1636 by Bishop Antonio de Valdés and the cathedral chapter. The current cloister is primarily classical in style. It is a single-story structure forming a square with open galleries that open onto the courtyard through some twenty semicircular arches with Doric columns and corbels between them.
Right in front of this cathedral was the execution site of Marshal Pedro Pardo de Cela, a Galician nobleman and military leader who made history and legend after confronting Queen Isabella of Castille (something to do with a dowry). The Queen ordered his death and Pardo de Cela was publicly beheaded on October 3, 1483. Legend has it that as his head rolled down the steps, it uttered “clero, clero, clero” (clergy, clergy, clergy), accusing the bishops of his death.
The plaza is also home to Álvaro Cunqueiro, a prominent Galician writer born in Mondoñedo in 1911. He wrote in both Galician and Spanish and produced poems, novels, plays, journalism, translations and even cookery books. He died in 1981 but can still be seen gazing at the cathedral from a park bench in the plaza.
The plaza outside the cathedral is also a lovely place to sit and chill or grab a bite to eat…
The Igrexa Parroquial de Santiago, situated at the end of what is now Alfonso VII Street, began construction in 1890 and was inaugurated in 1901. It is built in the Neo-Gothic style by architect Nemesio Cobrero. It was the last major ecclesiastical construction and, for this reason, is known in Mondoñedo as the “New Church.”
The Cathedral of Mondoñedo and its plaza was intended to be just a quick stop on our way south to the Province of Ourense but after stopping there, we wished we’d allowed more time to explore one of “The Most Beautiful Villages in Spain”. Nonetheless, it was another stop in what was becoming a string of memorable stops along our Galician road trip.
