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Ermita y fortaleza de A Lanzada

Category: Monuments | Zone: Val do Salnés

Sanxenxo

GPS:
north: 42° 23' 58.1244"
west: 8° 48' 24.9372"

A Lanzada chapel was erected between 952 and 968 by the Bishop Sisnando II de Iria to defend the lands of Santiago. It is a small chapel with a rectangular ground plan and a single nave divided into two sections by an arch resting on columns. It has a slightly pointed vault that makes up the roof of the main nave.

The main façade is very simple and the only ornamentation it displays is a pointed arch on the door and a singular rose window. There is an apse at the back façade. It has a semicircular plan and four columns leaning against the wall. The most outstanding elements on the lateral façades are the eaves corbels. There is a Baroque altarpiece inside the chapel.

The tower was built by the Merinos of Iria around 952. A castle was built at this place over the remnants of an old Phoenician lighthouse to defend from the Norman and Viking invasions that devastated this part of Galicia. The defensive system consisted of making a bonfire at the tower to warn about the presence of the enemy. These bonfires were seen from San Sadurniño tower (Cambados) that warned Catoira towers in the same way and thus up to Santiago de Compostela.

Localition: The tower of A Lanzada is located at the place called A Lanzada, at the parish of Noalla, in Sanxenxo Council