A VilavellaChurch of Santa María
The church of A Vilavella, dedicated to Santa María de la Cabeza, is a neoclassical temple built in the 18th century. On the façade, the doorway stands out, with a semicircular arch and an intrados decorated with beautiful geometric motifs (spirals, four-leaf roses...) and framed with pilasters, as well as a spindle and pediment with a niche in the tympanum.
The church has a rectangular floor plan and is made up of a rectangular nave, a higher square presbytery and a sacristy attached to the north wall.
The enclosing walls are of good quality stonework and the roof, supported by a wooden structure, is of flagstone, as is traditional in this region of eastern Galicia.
Rivas Quintas and Rodríguez Cruz highlight the importance of the atrium of the temple "for the tomb covers, a large part of which are decorated with quadrangular incision and, in the respective corners, four pilgrim shells", an allusion to the Camino de Santiago.
The interior of the church is notable for the fabulous Baroque altarpiece of the main altar (18th century), painted with gold and supported by Solomonic columns. Some of the carvings, such as that of Christ in the north chapel, are the work of the famous sculptor Xosé Ferreiro.