The village of Castro de Beiro, in the rural perimeter of Ourense, receives its name from an old pre-Roman settlement (castrum) on a promontory that would allow its inhabitants to have an advantageous position against attacks. On this promontory is the parish church of St. Andrew in Beiro, from which magnificent views of the surroundings can be seen. The temple falls within the so-called “classic” type of Galician Romanesque, from the early 13th century.
The gate of the main façade consists of a slightly pointed semicircular arch with checkered decoration. A tree and five birds are represented on a capital, while its opposite contains vegetal decoration. On the tympanum, despite not being complete, a part of a cross is still distinguished. On the gate the eaves are adorned with balls and supported by several corbels with vegetal motifs.
Both the southern and northern façades are arranged in a similar way: a gate with a pointed arch and a smooth tympanum. The cornice is supported by corbels adorned with geometric shapes.
The apse is centered by the semicircular window in whose capitals vegetal motifs are represented. Cornices are supported with geometric corbels and in the metopes there are variations of 4-petal flowers.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.