“Museo das Laudas” (Museum of Tombstones) – Church of Santa María A Nova

This Gothic church houses an exhibition of tombstones belonging to different professional guilds and social classes in the town, from medieval times until the Modern Age. The cemetery beside the church features a stone cross covered by a baldachin (16^th century), known as the “Cristo do Humilladoiro,” a Gothic stone cross and more than five hundred tombstones with engravings or reliefs.

The exhibition is organised as follows, in order to display a selection of the collection’s different types and time periods:

1. Tombstones featuring professional or guild depictions: characterised by the appearance of tools identifying the guild to which the deceased person belonged. These tombstones feature trades such as fishermen, stonemasons, shipbuilders, cobblers, tailors, among other professions.
2. Tombstones with family marks, which are more specific and were used to identify different families. These marks were passed down from parents to children and, sometimes, they appear in association with tools that the deceased persons used in their working life.
3. Tombstones with heraldic and epigraphic motifs, featuring the coat of arms of the person that they represent.
4. Tombstones featuring anthropomorphic themes, with the human figure being their main decoration.