A 14th-century Gothic church that is no longer used for services — it functions now as a museum of medieval tombstones. The building itself is fine, but it is the surrounding graveyard that makes this one of the most singular sights in Galicia. The carved gravestones depicting the tools of each deceased person's trade are remarkably well preserved and genuinely moving to walk among.
Santa María a Nova
Medieval graveyard with tombstones carved by trade guild
A story
The graveyard of Santa María a Nova is one of the most remarkable in Galicia. The tombstones — hundreds of them, dating from the 14th to the 17th century — are carved with the tools of the trade of the person buried beneath: a cobbler's last, a tailor's scissors, a barber's razor. Together they form an extraordinary record of medieval guild life, and nowhere else in Spain is anything quite like it preserved.