Sanctuary of the Virgin of Los Remedios

The original chapel of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios de la Pena de Outeiro was endowed by Bishop Fray Francisco de Santa María Benavides in 1558 and, in a short time, became a center of Marian devotion. After a first attempt of reform in the XVII century, a total reconstruction was carried out in the XVIII century. The present building, built by order of Bishop Sarmiento between 1733 and 1738, was constructed after demolishing the previous one. This work was directed by the architect Fray Lorenzo de Santa Teresa, master builder of the convent of San Pedro de Alcántara, although the basic lines were drawn by the bishop himself. The resulting building will be a church with a Latin cross plan and a sacristy behind the High Altar. Likewise, the naves, transept arms and the Main Chapel were covered with barrel vaults and the layout of the transept, which is the place where both arms of the Latin cross that forms the floor plan cross, is octagonal in shape. The main façade presents a wide doorway framed by two columns and crowned by an ovoid cartouche with an inscription that reads "A expensas del Ilustrísimo Señor Obispo Sarmiento se reedificó y amplió eta capilla. Year of 1738". Above it a window opens as a small rose window and to finish off this central section, we find the arms of Bishop Sarmiento de Sotomayo. On both sides there are two towers with pilasters and two bell towers. Today we can only find bells in the right tower. In the left one a reoj was installed. In the two towers there is an inscription that says "This chapel was begun in the month of June of 1733 and was finished in June of 1738 being Bishop and Lord of Mondoñedo Don Fray Antonio Alexandro Sarmiento Sotomayor" (right tower). In spite of everything, the facade will not be finished until years later and it is made with charge to 2000 ducats that the bishop leaves destined for this end. The work was carried out in 1755 when the bishop had already died. Of the original construction a lintel is conserved above the lateral door of the right facade that possesses the shield of the bishop founder of the same one, D.Francisco de Santa Maria Benavides (XVI century). In the interior, the High Altar has an altarpiece of baroque style that was finished in 1744, because it is when the Cabildo decided to transfer the Virgin of the Remedies to her chapel and to celebrate the sung mass, but it will not be until the end of 1745 when the gilding of this one that today we can contemplate here is contracted. In it is the patron saint of the chapel: the Virgen de los Remedios, but we can find other images such as the Assumption of the Virgin, San Ildefonso, San Anselmo, San Bernardo or San Ruperto, all of them carvings of the eighteenth century. The original disposition of the transept in octagonal form, allows to lodge four altarpieces. Those of the front part, facing the High Altar, of Baroque style and those of the back part of Rococo style. All of them from the XVIII century. In them we can find images of Saint Scholastica (front right), Saint Benedict Abbot (front left), the Virgin of the Rosary - picture - (back right) and the saints San Domingo de Guzman and San Vicente Ferrer (back left). This church is the parish church of Los Remedios, constituted as an independent parish in the reform carried out in 1895.