Wednesday 30 December 2020

GRANJINHA (CHAVES)

 

GRANJINHA (CHAVES)
N 41.73054; W 7.49293

Capela da Granjinha is a Portuguese church located in the village of Granjinha, parish of Vale de Anta, in the municipality of Chaves, district of Vila Real.
It is the oldest church in the Chaves region. It is a small and skimpy chapel, but very beautiful, all built-in granite. Romanesque in style, worth mentioning the simple and sober design, as well as the temple door on the main facade.
In the vicinity of the small village, several vestiges attest to the existence of a Roman Villa on the axis of the Roman road that connected Bracara Augusta and Aquae Flaviae. Several archaeological finds, bases, and pillars of columns, mosaic parts, inscriptions, bronze pieces, a marble, and ceramic statue were found. In archaeological surveys carried out inside the chapel, remains of opus signinum pavements were revealed, a Roman wall with a good apparatus, and two levels of medieval necropolis.
The occupation of this place continued through the High Middle Ages, the obscure centuries of the Reconquest, with the construction of the chapel at a later time, at the beginning of the 13th century, according to some authors, or at the end of the same century, in the opinion of others.
Romanesque chapel, rectangular in plan with the head and nave of identical length, internally differentiating the triumphal arch and the smaller width of the head.