Capilla de San Roque de Melide

Capilla de San Roque de Melide - Wikimedia Commons/L. Miguel Bugallo S.

Melide is located in the geographical center of Galicia and is very close to Santiago and, therefore, many pilgrims traveling the French Way make a stop in this small town, which has many interesting places to visit.

One of these places is the Chapel of San Roque, which was built in 1949, using materials from two other churches of medieval origin that collapsed, the Church of San Pedro and the Church of San Roque. Of the first of these it conserves its original door, built around 1325, in Romanesque style.

This door is composed of four semicircular archivolts highly ornamented with small arches, rosettes and zigzagging moldings. The capitals and the chambana are decorated with phytomorphic figures (engravings in the shape of fruits or vegetables) of excellent finish. In the interior we can find an altarpiece of neoclassical style, rescued from the old church of San Roque, in which this saint is represented. It is also worth mentioning that inside there are the tombs of two famous medieval notaries of the town and the wife of one of them.

The oldest cruceiro of Galicia

It should also be noted that next to it is considered the oldest cross of Galicia. Castelao himself, one of the most important authors of the history of Galicia, dealt with this subject in his work As cruces de pedra na Galiza, stating that it was built around the 14th century. The obverse presents a Christ in Majesty, while the reverse shows a Calvary.