In 300 m there are this complex declarated BIC.
The unfinished Basilica of the Ascension, begun at the end of the 13th century, in whose crypt is the Forno da Santa, where the martyrdom of Mariña took place, the subject of this Part 3. Also very close, the old Roman road shows us leads to the Castro or Cidade de Armeá, from the Castro period, which we will see in the next chapter. In addition, other points of interest that we will see, for example, the southern branch of the Vía de la Plata of the Camino de Santiago passes through here.
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The basilica is in the shape of a cross to accommodate the stairs that go down to the crypt. This was built with some ashlars from the neighboring Galician-Roman town. The crypt houses well differentiated spaces. An area built as an anteroom in which there is a basin carved into the rock, various channels, an altar and several lids of medieval sarcophagi. The interior only penetrates the light that filters through a small window that is located above the altar. This anteroom is separated by a supposed “Pedra Formosa” that differentiates the two rooms of different antiquity (one from the 12th century and the other from the 6th or 7th century). Further inland we find the "forno" or "fornalla" that could already be considered of pre-Roman origin and encompassed within the castrexa culture.
Forno da Santa
The functionality of the "fornos" is not yet clear and there are several hypotheses that try to explain their use. On the one hand, it is said that they could be traditional saunas although this hypothesis is becoming less clear every day. Others try to explain a use as a furnace, even to burn human bodies, within a religious concept. There is also talk of a functionality for some kind of initiation rite, hence the profuse decorations in the “Pedras Formosas”. Whatever it was, it is highly probable that this furnace would have been in operation until after the 8th century or perhaps until the construction of the basilica. In favor of the hypothesis of the oven here, in Augas Santas, we have the precedent of oral tradition, in which it is said that Santa Mariña was burned inside a furnace that the neighbors well knew what it is. The basilica with the crypt is part of an archaeological route that includes several historical and natural sites, all of them related to the Saint. It is very likely that the legend of the saint arose around the 11th or 12th century and that it was a strategy to divert the pagan rites that were performed there. In fact, one of the first mentions of the holy Galician martyr is in the 11th century.
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Legend has it that very close to the Sanctuary of Santa Mariña de Augas Santas there was a Roman villa known as Armea, a place name that has been preserved to this day in the form of the small town that inherited the name. From there was the Roman praetor who fell in love with Santa Mariña and who initiated Calvary against the saint. We cannot doubt the existence of a remote history given the large number of archaeological remains from various eras that are scattered throughout the area. Apart from the sanctuary, we find various petroglyphs, a fort, legendary penedos, secular fonts , a Romanesque basilicaunfinished that contains a Templar crypt under its floor in which there could be the remains of a Pedra Formosa or what is the same as a pre-Roman oven ... In legend it is known as O Forno da Santa and that according to her was where it was tried to burn to the saint. All these historical elements are related to the legend of Santa Mariña. In addition to recently, the remains of another possible Roman villa or a sanctuary that has steps in the rock where it sits in a place known as Monte do Señoriño were discovered very close .
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