Monastery Church · Oseira (EN)

The most outstanding construction of Oseira, from medieval times, is the church, a jewel of great architectural value, a key example for the study of the Cistercian Order in Spain. Professor Valle Pérez proposes a starting date of around 1185, in the abbacy of D. García II, being the head of the temple the first thing to be built. The analysis of the construction shows a clear unity in the ornamental motifs, type of capitals, organization of the supports... The conclusion of the main chapel would have taken place around 1195-1200. Work continued in the following years on the transept, which would be finished except for the dome around 1200, and on the naves. Construction activity was intense in the first decades of the 13th century. The probable date of consecration in the year 1239 could be considered as the end of the works. The architecture of this temple is a synthesis between the foreign and the local, which is a phenomenon very present in all the architecture of the Order.