PAÇO DE SOUSA (Portugal): Monastery of the Saviour
The Church of the Monastery of the Saviour of Paço de Sousa is a central monument in the context of the Romanesque architecture in the Sousa Valley.
Its singular features in architecture and in sculpture, and the fact that it retains the tomb of Egas Moniz, turn this former Benedictine monastery into one of the most appealing and prestigious testimonies of the Portuguese Romanesque architecture.
The sculpture of the Church adopts prismatic columns in the portals, bulb-like bases, bevelled botanical patterns and develops long friezes inside and outside the churches, in the fashion of the architecture from the Visigoth and Mozarab periods.
Paço de Sousa was a paradigmatic building equally influenced by themes from the Romanesque of Coimbra and the See of Porto, giving rise to what was known as nationalized Romanesque of the basins of the Sousa and Lower Tâmega rivers.
Paço de Sousa was built from the foundation of a monastic community that dates back to the 10th century. The oldest documented reference is a testament from 994 belonging to abbot Randulfo, who was escaping from a monastery in the South during the invasions of Al-Mansur.
In this period, the Monastery, founded by Trutesendo Galindes and his wife Animia, should follow the monastic customs of the Peninsula, having adopted the Rule of Saint Benedict during the abbacy of Sisnando, between 1085 and 1087.
This Church does not correspond to the current Romanesque temple, but everything seems to indicate that its architecture has left traces in the 13th century construction.
The Monastery of the Saviour of Paço de Sousa, one of the most renowned Benedictine monasteries, is related to the important family of the lands between the Douro and Minho Rivers, the Ribadouro. One of the most illustrious Ribadouro was Egas Moniz, traditionally credited with the foundation of this Monastery.
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