On a long weekend at the beginning of May, we decided to go away to explore some towns in southwest Ourense and stay at a casa rural. The drizzle held off for the most part, allowing us to walk around quite a bit, but the dampness prevented us from going full-on hiking.
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| Ceiling, San Rosendo |
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| Inner doors, San Rosendo |
Our first stop on Saturday was Celanova. Being a small town, there aren't a million things to do there. But keeping in mind the scant population (less than 6,000), the church of San Rosendo is shockingly grandiose and ornate. The gold-painted inner doors paired with a very detailed sculpted ceiling make it seem more like a basilica for a big metropolis. The church is connected to a large former Benedictine monastery, dating back to the 900s. Nowadays, the cloister is open to meander, and the rest of the building is used for a high school and other public purposes. Can you imagine going to school in a building over 1000 years old?!
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| Where's my accordion when I need it? |
Just a village, the main reason we went here was to get some dinner, as the casa rural didn't offer meals, and this village was the only thing less than 20 minutes away. There is a tavern there which only opens on weekends, but really does wonders for the surrounding area culturally. They host concerts every day of the weekend, and offer a place to socialize in a rural area where bars and cafes are scarce. The night we went, there was an accordion duet. The guys were fun and into it, one of them sometimes switching the accordion out for other instruments. It turns out, in addition to having written a book about accordionists in the region, they were also the instructors of a weekend-long accordion course. Their students were eager to practice what they had learned, so suddenly we were surrounded by dozens of accordion players! It was surreal. Like an accordion flashmob!
Congostro
How I happened upon this ethnographic town I don't even recall, but it was worth the stop. There wasn't even a bar in this village, that's how small it was. There did seem to be a family of locals out and about, but aside from that, the narrow lanes were deserted. Apparently there is a little route describing characteristic buildings of a typical Galician village. I was only able to find the info about the Galician home (animals sleeping downstairs, family life taking place upstairs) and the communal oven (whereas houses in the countryside each have their own bread oven, in the village they pitched in to build a communal one). The other highlight of this village is the square full of hórreos.
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| A conglomeration of hórreos |
Allariz
We kind of ran out of things to see, so added Allariz to the list. I had already been, but revisiting a pretty place boasting narrow, hilly streets and a tranquil riverside was fine by me. So Sunday morning we headed out to this Medieval, pedestrian town. In addition to rambling around, the small toy museum kept us entertained for about a half an hour. Then we snagged a table for lunch outdoors with river views at the old tannery. In the Middle Ages, Allariz was once known for its leathermaking. Now the stone-floored building on the banks of the Arnoia River has been turned into a museum/restaurant. Inside, watch your step because after hundreds of years, the floor is anything but flat. Our experience was lovely and very enxebre! The food was tasty and the place packed, probably because it's a classy place to take your mom on Mother's Day. The meal rounded off a calm weekend in rural Ourense.
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| Wysteria and hórreo, Allariz |
