Monastery of Pombeiro

The Monastery of Santa Maria de Pombeiro, currently classified as a National Monument, is still today a cultural landmark in the territory where it is located. Documented since 853, no material element remains from the original establishment, but it was possibly a modest building. In the twelfth century the Romanesque project begins, giving the monastery the planimetry of the great monasteries of the Benedictine order, with the portal being the only remaining element of that period. The monastery is located at the intersection of two of the main medieval roads of the time – one that connected Porto to Trás-os-Montes, via Amarante, and a second that connected Beira to Guimarães and Braga, crossing Lamego and the Douro in Porto de Rei, thus realizing the importance of this monastic complex in the region.