Poio´s monastery and hórreo. Poio´s monastery museum

About this heritage

The municipality of Poio is located in the province of Pontevedra, its coasts are part of Arousa´s estuary. It has Pontevedra, Sanxenxo, Meis and Meaño as neighbouring town councils.

Turistically it is known for its beaches, restaurants, pine-forests and also for its heritage and cultural offer. Poio belongs to Combarro, a traditional fishing village that must be visited and which was declared a historical site in 1972. You will be able to visit their hórreos (traditional Galician raised granaries) and their seafaring style houses. It is also a “must visit” the Raxó beach and the great beach of Laño and of course, it is essential to visit San Xoán monastery, declared a national monument in 1971.

The Mercedarian Monastery of San Juan de Poio dates back to 942. The building has two cloisters, the one for the processions and the one for the baroque. The first one with a ribbed vault and built in the 16th century has a Baroque fountain in the garden; and the second one, in Baroque style, is covered by a 200 square meter mosaic representing the Way of Saint James built between 1747 and 1749.

The church is a combination of Renaissance and Baroque style. The patron saint of the church is St. John the Baptist.

The Monastery is home to a Mercedarian monks community. Inside it is located the Poio´s monastery museum, which consists of 4 exhibition rooms. In its rooms you can see mosaics and sculptures made of stone and plaster, paintings, miniature books. . .

The Monastery also has an impressive hórreo because of its size. It is almost 30 meters long and 2 meters wide, which is why it is considered the largest in Galicia, not in vain, 17 rows of 3 feet each were needed to support it.

To learn more

The Monastery also has one of the most impressive libraries in Galicia, with more than 80,000 copies, which shows the important cultural reference of the convent in its area of influence.

The Monastery also housed the “Escola de Canteiros" (Stonemasonry school) which began its work on January 15, 1979, and depended on the Ministry of Culture. In 1982, it became dependent on the Pontevedra´s City Council and left the Monastery to move to its own facilities.

At present the convent is dedicated to tourist accommodation run by the monks.

In fact, there are two monasteries, the old Benedictine convent, with its church, the two cloisters - of the cross and the processions - and other outbuildings, and the modern, Mercedarian one, also with two parallel courtyards and a large chapel that stands out from the building. Work began in 1959 and was carried out to establish a major seminary here.

Poio had great power and relevance until the Disentailment of Mendizábal in 1835, when the Monastery lost its privileges, at which time the Order of St. Benedict left the monastery. Half a century later the Order of Mercé occupies the site and they are in charge of the restoration and reconstruction of the building up to nowadays.

To reach the Monastery from the city of Pontevedra in Sanxenxo direction, take the PO-308 road. After 2 km, we will have to turn to the right and after about 500 m, we will find the Monastery.

To know it better

The municipality of Poio has different places of interest where you can see different landscapes. Its monastery, dating from the 7th century, has a large library with over 100,000 items and the Museum of Mosaics. Other points of interest can be found in Combarro: its historical-artistic complex is one of the largest groupings of hórreos (traditional Galician raised granaries) in Galicia and its marina offers an authentic Galician traditional seafaring and fishing style district.

The monastery of San Xoán de Poio was founded in the 7th century and dominates a large area of the Pontevedra estuary. In its different spaces, you can learn many things about our history. The “Claustro de los Naranjos” (Cloister of the Orange´s Trees) exhibits pieces from the old Romanesque monastery, while one of the rooms of the monastery houses the Museum of Antón Machourek with about one hundred and fifty works made by this Czech artist, one work of the Galician painter Pedro García Lema and watercolours by Julián Martín Casado.

On the other hand, in the library we can appreciate personal memories of the priest Antonio Rey Soto, since he lived in this monastery. The Poio´s Monastery museum has four exhibition rooms, three with permanent exhibitions and one for temporary exhibitions.

On the other hand, we can find the biggest hórreo in Galicia in terms of area´s surface, which corresponds to the end of the 18th century.

Poio is a municipality located in the centre of Pontevedra´s province of about 34 km² that are distributed in its five parishes: San Salvador, San Xoán, Combarro, Samieira and Raxó.