Lousada

The Santa Maria de Meinedo Church is classified as a Public Interest Building since 1945, and integrates the very interesting touristic-cultural Vale do Sousa Romanesque Route.

This monument is a late construction that might be the reconstruction of an old monastery of hermits that probably stood in the very same place in the 11th century as a reform of an old Suevi-Visigoth building from the 7th century.

The current building probably dates back to the 13th century and has an inscription dating from 1262 at the Church’s entrance.

This Church presents an architecture quite close to the rural Romanesque. It presents a plan with an unique nave, with wooden covering.

Meinedo was the head of a Bishopric in the 6th century. The archaeological researches between 1991 and 1993 discovered elements of a previous building that might date back from the Suevi occupancy period.