Postcard 40
features a gem of a chapel dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel and located
in the garden of the Monastery of San Salvador in Celanova, a town of 6,000
inhabitants located 23 km from Ourense.
The Monastery of San Salvador is Celanova’s most important building in a
well-preserved historical center. It was founded by St. Rudesind (San Rosendo)
in 936. The nave is considered the most perfect Galician Baroque church.
Saint Michael’s Chapel happens to be one of the best preserved pre-Romanesque monuments in Spain.
Completed in the year 942 (10th century), the chapel has a Mozarabic style and consists of a nave, from where it is accessed, with a barrel vault, the central body crowned by an inner brick cross vault, and a prominent outer overhang, and an apse, square on the outside and round in the inside, topped by a dome.
Despite its small windows, the chapel’s interior is
incredibly luminous. In fact, its orientation is such that it captures the
light of the rising sun at the equinoxes of spring and autumn.
Sources:
Very interesting, this chapel is a treasure
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