Arrabaldo Church

The church of Santa Cruz de Arabaldo was originally a small monastery that depended on the important Cistercian community of Oseira: its documents date it as early as the 12th century. It consists of a single nave and rectangular apse.

Its façade is Baroque, but the rest of the stonework is Romanesque. Thus, on the southern façade we find a mysterious inscription with Romanesque characters and on the cornice some corbels with geometric decoration. On the northern façade, on the other hand, the corbels have vegetal decoration, and a checkered semicircular gate appears, supported by vegetal capitals and two bovines on the brackets.

The rectangular apse is lower than the central nave. Both end in a cornice supported by corbels: the southern ones have geometric shapes and a monstrous animal, while on the northern ones there is a person drinking from a barrel, an animal that seems to be looking at us and a bird clutching an object. The head has a semicircular arched window with checkered patteern supported by capitals (some decorated with birds) on smooth columns. The apse is finished off in an Agnus Dei with a ram whose cross is missing

Address
Aldea Arrabaldo 2, Arrabaldo, Spain

Established
12th century