Mondoñedo Turismo
The cathedral was built in the 13th century on a Latin cross and assembles different architectonic styles (Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque). It has an interior cloister into the Episcopal palace. The rosette on the main façade and the medieval mural paintings of the central nave merit special mention.
The last great restoral took place on the façade in the 18th century. It consisted on the construction of two new square towers in replacement of the old ones, which where round and smaller. In 1718 the first tower (the one on the left) was inaugurated and in 1720 the second one (on the right).
It is also noteworthy the Cathedral Museum in the inside of the building, which is considered one of the best in Spain.
The Episcopal Palace was the residence of the bishops of Mondoñedo since its constitution as the see of the Diocese. The building, annexed to the Cathedral, was extended at the same time as the Cathedral. The latest biggest reforms were accomplished in the 18th century: the part of the Palace facing the Square was rebuilt in 1760 and the pavilion facing the Rúa da Fonte, opposite the Fonte Vella (old fountain), was extended between 1789 and 1790.
In the middle of the 16th century, the fountain, which had a basin/raft system, was not appropriate to provide the population with water adequately.
The new construction was executed by the bishop Diego de Soto and it was finished in 1548, as it can be seen on the foundation inscription. It was built of stone at a lower place than the old one and, originally, it had four pipes.
At the top, we can see Charles the first Imperial Coat of Arms. At the bottom, on both sides of the fountain, there are two coats of arms of the bishop who ordered the work.
The City Council as well as the Cathedral Chapter and the bishop agreed to establish, under the cannons and decrees of the Council of Trent, the Royal and Conciliar Seminary of Santa Catalina. Thus, in 1573, the Seminar was already running. It was placed at numbers 1st and 2nd of the old Rúa do Colexio, nowadays named Rúa Afonso VII.
The first building became obsolete soon, so it was moved. The Bishop Francisco Losada y Quiroga was the creator of the new one and tackled its construction on a vegetable garden, a land of Episcopal property, named “O Torrillón”.
The first stage of the current building was built between 1770 and 1775. It had only a cloister with a ground floor and a first floor.
During the nineteenth century, the place went under several changes from the very beginning. Thus, in 1809, it was used as the quarters of the French troops in Mondoñedo and, in 1836, during the Carlist Wars, it was reused for military purposes.
However, between 1888 and 1889 an enlargement of the building was carried out and a second floor was added to the building.
On the XX century, the capacity of the construction was doubled. First, a new pavilion for stewardship was built, together with a kitchen a pantry and a refectory. Later, between 1947 and 1953, new works were performed with the aim to double the capacity of the Seminar. Accordingly, a new cloister and a big chapel were built.
Nowadays, the building consists of two cloisters, and a pavilion with two and three floors. Inside it, there are several chapels and a library where works of great interest are kept, among which we can find some inculabulum.
From the 16th century, the secular power has been centralised in two houses, refurbished for that purpose. The fitting-out works ended in 1569. The Imperial coat of arms that remains today on the façade facing the square dates from 1575. In 1582, after adding five pipes to evacuate the water from the roof, the building was finished.
The façade went under a last restoral in the 18th century, when the wrought-iron balcony facing the Praza da Catedral (Cathedral Square) was added to the building.
On the east façade, there is still a wooden polychrome image of Saint Roque dating from the 18th century.
The building is an old Pazo (Galician ancestral home or manor house) dating from the 18th century (1747) and was the headquarters of the Provincial Regiment of Mondoñedo.
It has a square plan with three granite stone façades, where we can find two coats of arms: The Royal coat of arms and the Town coat of arms.
The wall that surrounded the town leant on the left wall of the building. The whitewashed part housed the Capela das Angustias (Angustias Chapel), which gave name to the arch placed over it.
This building, where the municipal facilities have been located from 1932, was refurbished for the last time in the nineties.
Originally, the parish of the city was located inside the cathedral. After several attempts to separate both buildings, as it was considered necessary, the division took place under the term of Fernández de Castro as bishop.
The construction of the new Santiago Parish Church began in 1890 and the task was entrusted to the architect Nemesio Cobrero. The building, of Neogothic style, was inaugurated in 1901.
Nowadays, it is preserved as it was built. It was the last great ecclesiastic construction in the place and, for this reason, it is known in Mondoñedo as the Igrexa Nova (New Church).
The original shrine of Nosa Señora dos Remedios (Our Lady of Os Remedios) at Pena de Outeiro dates from the sixteenth century, a time when it was already an important centre for Marian devotion.
After a first remodelling attempt in the 17th century, a total rebuilding took place in the 18th century.
The present building was erected by order of the Bishop Sarmiento. It was built after demolishing the old one, between 1733 and 1738. The work was directed by the architect Frei Lorenzo de Santa Teresa, master builder of the convent of San Pedro de Alcántara. Nevertheless, the base lines where traced by the bishop himself.
The resulting building is a church with a Latin cross layout and a sacristy behind the high altarpiece. The naves, which form the arms of the cross, as well as the main chapel, were covered with barrel vaults and the transept layout is orthogonal. The main façade was not finished until 1755, when the bishop had already died.
From the original construction still remains a lintel on the right side door of the façade, where there is also a coat of arms of the founder bishop Mr, D. Francisco de Santa María Benavides (dating from the16th century).
The old municipal cemetery was the place where the internments of the city took place. A special feature of this place is the fact that, besides housing the tombs of the most distinguished figures from Mondoñedo, it has separate spaces used for burying the different social classes of the town. Accordingly, right on the top are the big vaults for the highest classes. In the middle, we can find the tombs of the middle classes and, at the bottom, the poorest and more modest classes.
Furthermore, on one side, there is a civil graveyard to bury all those people who hadn´t been baptised or had been declared atheistic.
Among the tombs of celebrities buried in the place, the most outstanding are Álvaro Cunqueiro, the author of many important works such as Merlín e Familia; the writer Leiras Pulpeiro and the musicians Pascual Veiga, the author of the Himno Gallego (Galician hymn), and the Kapellmeister of the Cathedral of Mondoñedo José Pacheco.