One of the great architectural jewels of Pobra. Its history and tradition place this temple with one foot in the Middle Ages and the other in the Renaissance. Its artistic design responds to a very Galician style: Maritime Gothic. This style is typical of coastal Galicia in the 14th-15th centuries. It is a style that is halfway between the Romanesque, now obsolete, and the Gothic of the great cathedrals. The pointed arches and light entrances stand out in the apse of Santiago do Deán, in a curved shape giving a sense of circular movement. The nave of the church has pointed arches supported by pillars with capitals that depict elements from the apocalyptic bestiary. The apse and central nave can be dated to the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century, the peak of the Maritime Gothic artistic style. The diamond of this jewel is the 16th century Alba Chapel (built around 1579), in Renaissance style, which represents a mosaic of human existence based on the Christian fact; it is a clear Galician example of an altarpiece not in wood, but in stone. Pincheiro has been working for years on this jewel and offers its clients a unique audiovisual project in its virtual classroom to be able to enter into the meaning and depth of this jewel of Pobra and in this way its clients can then visit it and understand it. This programme includes an overview of other valuable works in this church and an overview of the tradition of the shrouds in this church of the Deán.
King Philip, to give thanks to God for this victory on St. Lawrence’s Day, ordered the construction of the Escorial Monastery. Gómez Pérez, emulating the action of the king, on his arrival at Villa del Caramiñal in 1560, promoted the construction of the church in Villa del Caramiñal, a place to which he had given the title of Villa in 1554. Work began on the apse and the walls of the central nave. Once the Renaissance apse was finished, the work was halted for many years until 1702, when it was inaugurated by means of its consecration before the Marquises of Parga, lords of the town, whose coats of arms emblazoned the church. Architecturally, therefore, this temple has one foot in the Renaissance (apse) and the other in the Baroque (central nave), a good example of which is its magnificent Baroque altar in the apse (1700), one of the best in the diocese of Santiago in this artistic style. Another jewel of the church is the altar of the Carmen de los Pincheiros (Neoclassical Precious), and the works promoted by the patronage of the resent Catalans in the Arenal district (Neo-Baroque). The façade of the church has a triangular pediment on which is the image of the Virgin with the images of St. Peter and St. Paul on either side. Pincheiro AT has a charming virtual route in its digital classroom about this environment linked to the Pincheiro sailors and the industrialisation of Pobra by the Catalans, so that customers can get to know this reality through digital media and visit it.
It is a temple powerfully influenced by the Franciscan monastery just a few metres away. Part of the church’s imagery comes from this convent and reflects the Franciscan tradition, but also from the church before it in the 18th century. Two polychrome images of St. Peter and St. Paul and the image of St. Anthony from the convent, sculpted in granite stone, stand out. The façade is of later work and belongs to the 18th century.
Formerly there was a Romanesque temple there in the 12th century, on top of which this parish church was built in the 17th-18th centuries (a lintel indicating the date of 1500 has been preserved, which gives us the image of successive reconstructions). The composition of the bell tower (19th century) and the image of San Isidoro de Sevilla at the head of the entrance door are striking.
It is mentioned in the Historia Compostelana after this date because it must have been consecrated by Archbishop Gelmirez after its restoration in 1106. Nothing remains of the old building, as the present church was built in 1906 on the site of an old Romanesque church. In the Middle Ages (9th-11th centuries) the important population centres of Pobra were located in the interior of the mountain slopes, separated from the sea by the fear of invasions and plundering from the sea.
