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Culture
Monastery of St Euphemia
Less than half a kilometre north of Olmos de Ojeda on the privately owned farm of St. Euphemia lies the Romanesque church of St. Euphemia. It dates back to the 10th century and is the last vestige of the monastery of Freiras Comendadoras de Santiago, which, in turn, was built on top of another pre-Romanesque church dedicated to St. Cosmas and St. Damian.
This National Monument is considered the oldest female monastery of the Order of St. James. Apparently, King Alfonso VIII gave this building to Sancho Fernández de Lemus, first master of the Order of St. James, who used it to provide shelter for the wives and widows of the knights of the order, as well as for other women who wanted to join it.
The current church, which dates back to the 12th century, has a Latin cross floor plan with a single nave and three semicircular apses at the chevet. At the foot is a gable topped by a belfry. Inside you will find a barrel vault roof in the transept arms and the presbytery, while the rest of the building has ribbed vaults.
From the outside, there is a remarkable chevet, formed by three large apses, which does not seem to match the dimensions of the rest of the period. Research indicates that the project was initially planned to be more ambitious, but was later forced to scale back its ambitions.
It is full of rich details in the decoration of its columns and capitals or the main altar, which is formed by a large flat stone supported by capitals that were part of the cloister that no longer exists. The church also houses two stone tombs: the first, with fleurs-de-lis and lions sculpted in the stone and crowned by a sword, belongs to the Princess Doña Sancha Alfonso; the other belongs to a crusader knight. It also houses a small museum with a collection of remains of the former cloister.