Churches of Baiona

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We would eventually stay in Baiona for a week. We enjoyed the town and we had found a cafe that did great tapas and had good wi-fi. We had also repaired our heads ( toilet ) using up our last neoprene diaphragm to repair the outlet pump. Luckily the main distributors for Whale pumps in Spain were based in Baiona. An email request found they had the part in stock and were open Monday morning.

This left us some time to kill and as Lynne was keen to look at the local churches we duly set out late one afternoon. The two churches of note in Baiona are surprisingly almost next door to each other. In the Plaza de Santa Liberata.

The one on the right is the Sanctuary of St Liberata, building began in 1695. St Liberata was the first Christian woman to be martyred by crucifixion and she is depicted on a statue in the fascade.

Inside is the usual fantastic guided alter piece this one displaying scenes from the life of the Saint.

There are also fine paintings in the side chapels.

Just across the square is St Mary's and the first impression we got was of the heavy scent of fresh flowers which the church was full of. A lady seen in the photo below was busy exchanging fresh flowers as we arrived she can be seen in the doorway.

This church has real age having been begun in the second half of the 12th century, most of the building we now see however dates from the 14 th century, still an impossibly long time to grasp.

At first I thought the interior was quite dark until I took off my sunglasses! There is the obligatory guilded alterpiece and several side chapels with clothed statues, all richly decorated with fresh flowers.

As you look around my eye was drawn to the stonework in the arches where you can see the carved masons marks left by the builders.

This is quite difficult to spot on the walls but is very obvious on the buttresses above your head. A very human and I found quite touching message from the past.

Another church of note is St Johns chapel which is closed all year round except Easter and the feast of St Johns day. 

However the Mercy chapel is open to visitors and it is by the town hall.

The interior is quite plain ( for a Spainish church ) and it's obvious that this is a simple fishermans chapel with statues of St Carmen and small representations of boats in the decoration.

It dates from 1595 and has a statue known as the " Golden Christ " , we think it's the one central in the alterpiece. Apparently this statue came from America full of golden coins in its hollow interior. The chapel used to be sited outside the entrance to Montrreal fort but was moved into the old town in 1656.