Monforte De Lemos

Monforte de Lemos: Monastery of San Vicente del Pino

Monforte de Lemos, city, Lugo provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Galicia, northwestern Spain. The city grew around the 10th-century Benedictine Abbey of San Vicente del Pino (now a hospital) and became the capital of the county of Lemos in the 12th century. Dominating Monforte is the medieval keep of the counts, built on the site of a Roman camp. The chapel of the old Jesuit college has paintings by El Greco, Andrea del Sarto, and Hugo van der Goes. Monforte is a railroad junction and livestock-trading centre, with iron mines nearby. Tourism has increased in importance. The city lies near the Ribeira Sacra (“sacred river bank”), a region at the confluence of the Miño and Sil rivers that has the greatest concentration of monasteries and Romanesque churches in Galicia. Pop. (2007 est.) mun., 19,311.