Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil

Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil is a former Benedictine monastery. The ensemble of buildings, in which three cloisters have been preserved, is now used as a Parador hotel.

The first monastery probably already existed in Visigothic times. At the beginning of the 10th century, a hermit settled in the abandoned monastery and founded a new community with other hermits who had retreated to the Sil Valley. The Galician king Ordoño II granted privileges and from 921 the monastery was rebuilt and dedicated to St Stephen. The monastery's coat of arms, which depicts nine mitres, commemorates nine bishops who renounced their episcopal see in the 10th and 11th centuries and retired to the monastery of Santo Estevo. They were buried in the monastery and, as they were venerated as saints, their tombs soon attracted pilgrims.

As there were frequent disputes with the local landlords among the later commendatory abbots, Pope Julius II placed the monastery under the Benedictine Congregation of Valladolid in 1506. As a result, a school of liberal arts and philosophy was established in Santo Estevo and the monastery experienced a new period of prosperity.

Two more cloisters and new monastery buildings, a chapter house, a large kitchen and a dining hall as well as dormitories were built. In the 17th century, 60 monks lived there.

After the disamortisation of 1835, the monastery buildings fell into disrepair and were only restored at the end of the 20th century.

The altar