Casa Museo de Victor Corral en Baamonde

House-Museum of Víctor Corral, image from Wikimedia Commons

When we cross Begonte during the Camino of Santiago, we do it through a parish called Baamonde. While it's not a huge place on the map, it still is a valuable place. This village contains a lot of history and culture, and not only related to the Camino de Santiago. It's the case of the house-museum of Víctor Corral, a sculptor from Baamonde closely linked to his land.

Who was Victor Corral

Víctor Corral was an artist who captured two main themes in his work: his love for Galicia and his link with religion, both of which he often expresses in an abstract way. He trained as a sculptor in Barcelona and Switzerland, but decided to settle in the place where he was born. In this house, Víctor Corral built his workshop, and now it houses a permanent exhibition of his work.

Throughout his life, Víctor Corral worked mostly with granite and wood, but he also sculpted in bronze and ivory, and even experimented as a watercolor and oil painter. All these samples of his art can be seen in the museum house, in a visit that includes both the interior of the house and the farm that surrounds it.

What does the visit to the House Museum consist of?

Outside the house we can find a collection of sculptures made of more durable materials, such as granite and bronze. There is also a chapel, a small pond and a dovecote that keeps a collection of stones and minerals from all over the world.

Inside the artist's house are the most fragile sculptures: made of wood and ivory, and others also made of bronze. You can also see their memories through poems, photographs, clippings and all kinds of objects found in the workshop. In one of the rooms the largest compositions are kept, most of them religious, and another houses a collection of miniatures.

Baamonde is imbued with the artistic spirit of the sculptor, and one example is the chapel carved into a chestnut tree next to the church of Santiago de Baamonde. The action of the sculptor carving this piece of the Virgin ensured that the Centenary Chestnut, which is an icon of the town, was not cut down.