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The church of Vilar de Donas is a Catholic temple, located in the town of Palas de Rey, through which passes the French Camino de Santiago . It is a construction of the middle of the 12th century, this year it celebrates 800 years and is considered as a Cultural Interest since 1931. The legend attributes its foundation to a group of ladies from the family of Arias de Monterroso (who appears represented in the chapels of the major nave) with the aim of being a female monastery, hence the name «donas».
In the second half of the 12th century, the children of the founders donated it to the Order of Santiago, which was the order that protected pilgrims who were heading to Santiago de Compostela.
The construction is a Latin cross with only one nave and three apses in the head, which is very rare in the Galician Romanesque, as it could be intended to be a pilgrimage church and it was possible to visit during times of services(as the Cathedral of Santiago). The construction of the church is based on granite blocks very well squared and adjusted with abundant stone marks.
The church has several Romanesque sculptural elements. The capitals of the triumphal arch and those of the nave, which are decorated with plant motifs, fantastic animals, and human figures. These sculptures, although of Romanesque style, show a certain evolution towards more naturalistic forms, characteristics of the early Gothic, as it also happens with the arches, preserving those of half point but beginning to appear also pointed arches, more typical of Gothic architecture.
The portal, late in the Romanesque style, recalls the character of the workshop of Maestro Mateo, the author of the Portico de la Gloria in the Cathedral of Santiago. The original Romanesque hardware, which has adorned and reinforced this door for hundreds of years, is astonishing. It is one of the few churches that preserves them. All the ends of the fittings open in the form of palm leaves and are topped with arrowheads.
If we enter the interior of the temple, the most striking are two elements: on the one hand, the Gothic paintings that form part of the high altar, and on the other the different medieval tombstones in honor of the Knights of the Order of Santiago who were buried there in the 12th century. The paintings in the central part represent the moment of the Annunciation, with the archangel Saint Gabriel on the left and the Virgin Mary on the right. Above them is king David and the prophet Jeremiah. In fact you can read a text that says: “YO PROFETIZE DE xxxx VOS VIRGEN MARIA COME EL SALVADOR DE VOS NACERIA”. At the bottom is a sleeping angel and an awake angel that refer to the Old and New Testaments. In the vault is also represented Jesus among the kings of the time, Juan II de Castilla, María de Aragón and his son Enrique, future king (Enrique IV)
Its murals are rare in Galicia, where few churches preserv such old pictorial decorations, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. It is believed that at least three artists may have participated.
Another very important character in Galicia, Gonzalo Ozores de Ulloa, after the construction of the castle of Pambre, invaded Vilar de Donas and left his mark on the monastery, building the figure of the castle in stone and fixing it on top of the baldaquin.
Besides being a place of worship and burial, it is believed that the church and its annex monastery were a hospital for pilgrims following the Camino de Santiago. This hospital function is a common feature of many monasteries and convents on the Camino, which offered refuge and care to pilgrims on their journey to Compostela. It is curious that it is away from the road despite having hospital use, but this is because in its origins was a monastery of nuns, these wanted to be away from the usual transit.
After the desamortización of Mendizábal in the fourth decade of the nineteenth century, as in many other cases, it went to serve as a parish church that is as follows today.