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In The Photos of the Readers of La Vanguardia we move today to the north of the province of A Coruña, four leagues from the Pontedeume Sea, where we find the Monfero monastery, located on the southern edge of the Fragas to which the Eume river gives its name and which constitute the best preserved Atlantic riparian forest in Europe.
There, in 9,000 hectares of Natural Park, roe deer, wild cats, wolves, otters, wild boars, birds and reptiles roam freely among oaks, hollies, laurels, hawthorns, cork oaks and thousands of varied ferns that are a treasure.
A thousand shades of green, sometimes so thick that the blue sky and white clouds can only be reflected in the river when the thickness allows them.
In the Town Hall of Monfero (Monte Fiero), near another secluded monastery called Caaveiro, there is, since the 12th century, this one founded by the Bermúdez and the Osorio, first Benedictine and then Cistercian, dedicated to Saint Mary – who is also here. We say the Virgen de la Cela – venerated since the 9th century and celebrated in a festive pilgrimage on the first Sunday of July.
He accumulated land, economic, religious and cultural power – an important library full of illustrated codices – donations and privileges.
With the protection of Alfonso VII, other monarchs and Popes… its abbots continually litigated with villagers and nobles, with the Counts of Andrade – some of them buried there – whose shield had as its motto: “Ave María, gratia plena”… and The monarchy always arbitrated in favor of the monastic order.
The Catholic Monarchs visited it and ordered reconstructions. The great economic boom of the 17th and 18th centuries led to a great transformation: cloisters, refectory, chapter house, new cells… and above all the current church, with a checkered façade of granite and slate between enormous columns. The baroque replaced much of the Renaissance.
The 19th and 20th centuries plunged it into constant deterioration. The republican declaration of Historical-Artistic Monument did not stop its looting and collapses and, currently, after some consolidation works, only the church and some rooms can be visited.
The three cloisters, halls and cells, or what remains of them, are invaded by weeds. The Xunta de Galicia, current administrator, has the say in its essential recovery and enhancement.
