Santa María´s church

The church of Santa María de Melide, listed as a National Monument, is the jewel of Melide's Romanesque architecture. It is a temple with a single nave ending in a semicircular apse at the chevet, with a shell vault, decorated with Renaissance paintings. The triumphal arch is rounded and bent. The left capital is decorated with vegetal elements. The right capital is figurative: with open jaws, which in Romanesque iconography seems to symbolise man's struggle against evil. The triumphal arch was closed by a 13th-century iron grille, which is the only surviving Romanesque grille in the village.
Two other outstanding elements of this church are its Romanesque altar, one of the few Galician altars of this style still preserved, and an image of the Virgin of the Snows, patron saint of the parish.