Samos

Samos is a municipality in the province of Lugo, Galicia, dominated by the Monastery of San Julián de Samos, a Benedictine foundation whose origins date to the sixth century and which is one of the largest and oldest operating monasteries in the Iberian Peninsula. The monastery complex, rebuilt and expanded from the seventeenth century onward, occupies an imposing position in the valley of the Oribio river.

The monastery has two cloisters: the Claustro de las Nereidas of the sixteenth century and the larger Claustro Gótico. A remarkable fresco cycle painted in the 1960s by Urbano Lugris decorates the larger cloister walls with scenes from Galician history and mythology. An active Benedictine community continues to operate the monastery.

For pilgrims on the northern Samos route from Triacastela, the monastery is the major architectural and spiritual encounter of the route, with the large complex visible from the valley path and pilgrim accommodation available within the monastery.