Torre da Homenaxe

Galicia


The stout and sturdy keep of the medieval castle of the Counts of Lemos looms atop the Monte de San Vicente. Built in the 13th and 14th centuries, it's 30m high, with 3m-thick walls. Exhibits on medieval Monforte and period furniture are displayed inside. Next door, the 17th-century Monasterio de San Vicente del Pino is now a parador hotel: everyone can enter to admire its elegant three-storey neoclassical cloister and visit the cafe there.

The Igrexa de San Vicente, the monastery church adjoining the parador, has an impressive late-Gothic interior and two florid baroque altarpieces, but you'll probably find it closed. The counts' 17th-century residence across the car park from the church, the Pazo Condal, forms part of the parador.