Osera

Anyone arriving in Osera usually has one very specific destination in mind: the Monastery of Santa María la Real, which stands within the bounds of this parish and gives it much of its identity. Indeed, the official name of the place, Santa María a Real de Oseira, refers directly to that dedication, so village and monastery are linked by the place name itself.

Osera is both a parish and a locality within the municipality of San Cristóbal de Cea, in the province of Ourense. It is worth bearing this dual status in mind when planning your visit: rather than a town in the usual sense, this is a parish territory in which the monastic complex serves as the main point of reference for travellers.

The link with Cea is nothing new. By the mid-19th century the parish already belonged to that municipality and had some 1,700 inhabitants at the time, a figure that gives an idea of how lively this corner of Ourense once was.

One of its best-known written mentions dates from that same period: Osera appears in the twelfth volume of the Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico de España y sus posesiones de Ultramar, the monumental work by Pascual Madoz that charted the country's geography village by village. Featuring in its pages is a small historical credential for any place, and a good excuse to look at it with a curious eye.

The advice is simple: come without hurrying, give the Monastery of Santa María la Real the time it deserves, and let the name Oseira, with its ancient ring, accompany your stroll through this parish in inland Galicia.