Monasterio de Armenteira

Monasterio de Santa María de Armenteira is a Cistercian monastery in the municipality of Meis, Pontevedra, Galicia, situated in a remote wooded valley above the Ría de Arousa. The monastery was founded in the twelfth century and flourished as a significant Cistercian foundation in the medieval period before declining and being restored in the twentieth century.

The church retains its Romanesque fabric, with a simple three-nave plan and carved capitals, while the cloister has elements from the transitional Romanesque-Gothic period of the thirteenth century, making it one of the more architecturally significant early Gothic monastic survivals in Galicia. The remote valley setting, surrounded by dense woodland, gives the monastery an exceptionally isolated and contemplative atmosphere.

For pilgrims on the Camino Espiritual, Armenteira is one of the most significant spiritual waypoints on the variant route, its remote woodland position making it feel genuinely removed from the Camino tourist infrastructure.