Templar church of San Miguel de Breamo

Possibly of much darker and still more uncertain origins than the Compostela church of Santa María la Real de Sar, the genesis of this imposing work of art that is the venerable church of San Miguel de Breamo, lends itself also to the most attractive hypotheses that, someday or not, may be proven as truthful and contrasted facts, they combine, however and for the moment, imagination, mystery and beauty in parts that are difficult to determine.

It is ignored, likewise and unfortunately, as often happens with this type of historical buildings, the identity of the master builder, but not the date when it was erected, coinciding - and this is one of the data that indicates numerous supporters of the Templar theory, with the decisive defeat of the Christian armies in the infamous battle of the Horns of Hattin; a battle that, besides counting on the loss of the True Cross, which always advanced at the head of the army, meant the beginning of the end of the Christian Kingdom in the Holy Land and, in some way, also sealed the future and the function of the orders military: 1187

Having its foundations set on the top of a hill, from which you can enjoy a magnificent strategic position - the perspective of Pontedeume and its bay that is obtained from there is still impressive - the isolated and solitary place has been considered , also, as another detail to take into account when pointing to the Christi del Temple milites as probable dwellers, a detail that should not surprise us in principle, given the good relations they had with the main noble families of Galicia -mainly , with the Traba and the Andrades, and through whose mediation they settled in places like the Burgo de Faro or the even closer Betanzos, where they had an important commission.

In fact, Pontedeume was one of the areas dominated by the latter, and the so-called Torre de los Andrade is still preserved. It is interesting to know that although there does not seem to be any record of any member of this family serving in the Temple before the fall of the Order, as one might expect, since the Order was a revulsive to the Western nobility, it is known that that at least one of its members held a position of some importance in his Portuguese continuation as the Order of Christ. There are hypotheses, likewise, that argue that there where in the twelfth century this church was dedicated to the figure of the heavenly champion par excellence, San Miguel, there was once a Celtic castro, detail that has not been proven so far, although It would not be altogether far-fetched, if we take into account other singular examples.

One of the most relevant, we would find it in the neighboring province of Asturias, in Serrapio, a town located in the council of Aller, where in a similar enclave, the foundations of a church dedicated to the no less singular figure of San Vicente were built: that saint who, like the Egyptian god Osiris, was dismembered, his pieces being thrown into the sea, from where they were collected by his followers. It is known, with all fidelity and the archaeological findings prove it, that there was a Celtic fort, on whose temple the Romans raised another in honor of Jupiter.

And it is no less curious, in addition, to verify the existence of another no less interesting church dedicated to this saint who, located in the province of Segovia, not only contains signs such as the apocalyptic knight or cygnatus that seemed to proliferate in constructions of Templar nature , but, in addition to the mural paintings that relate what was previously said about the dismemberment of the saint, there are others that show a Templar knight in combat, very similar to the French Cressac.

Another of the singularities of San Miguel de Breamo is its austere but solid aspect, of the church-fortress type that was current at the time, as also shown by the small windows, with the shape of an embrasure of its apses. Notwithstanding this detail, it is no less true, however, that there are many specialists who see a unique mastery in the harmonic conjunction of their forms, which make the temple one of the most unique of the Galician Romanesque and also point to the other side of the Pyrenees to its anonymous author.

Along with the characteristics, it is necessary to review the main rosette, which by its appearance, could seem a representation of that Sol Invictus that some authors hold as the reality of the vision of Constantino, as well as another smaller rosette, located in the north side, in whose composition, hardly without any effort, you can see a whole referential symbol, such as the fleur de lis or, as some authors also point out, the leg of goose.

On the other hand, although San Miguel de Breamo was uninhabited at the beginning of the 16th century and still retaining a documented date in 1491 that asserts the belonging by then to the regular canons of San Agustín, there is no reliable evidence that these were the founders or were there installed since the fateful date of 1187 when the temple was erected. It only indicates that in that century and in that year, they were there and little else.

Far from pretending, therefore, to maintain intransigent positions regarding authorship or belonging, it must be recognized, however, that after all, any hypothesis can have a place as far as this incredible place is concerned. And also, that the adventure of the Temple in the Peninsula, possibly was much wider and more mysterious than is generally supposed.

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NOTICE: originally published in my blog LA ESPAÑA DE LOS TEMPLARIOS. Both the text, photographs, and video (except music, reproduced under a YouTube license), are my exclusive property. The original entry can be found at the following address: https://juancarlosmenendez.blogspot.com/2014/09/san-miguel-de-breamo.html

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