Vilanova de Lourenzá

Camino del Norte

LugoGalicia

Compound toponym. Vilanova, 'new town', designates a medieval foundation with a charter of privileges —⁠the habitual pattern of Galician-Portuguese. De Lourenzá places the foundation in the valley of the Benedictine monastery of San Salvador de Lourenzá, whose toponym derives from the anthroponym Laurentius ('laureate'), patron of the monastery.

Vilanova, parallel to Castilian Villanueva and Portuguese Vila Nova, designated a medieval foundation ex novo with royal charter of privileges. The second element, Lourenzá, identifies the Benedictine monastery of San Salvador de Lourenzá, founded in the 10th century by count Osorio Gutiérrez (a Jacobean pilgrim known as the Holy Count) on the ruins of an early-medieval rural villa that belonged to a Laurentius —⁠the Latin anthroponym derived from laurus ('laurel'), symbolic crown of victory and, by extension, attribute of Christian martyrs and saints. The Galician form Lourenzá is the genitive in possessive (villa Laurentii) phonetically evolved. The new town, founded in the 12th century in the shadow of the monastery, is today the head of the eponymous council and preserves notable monastic architecture: the abbey church of San Salvador, Baroque of the 17th over an earlier Romanesque trace, houses the founder's tomb with his recumbent 12th-century effigy.

Evolution of the name

  1. villa nova + Laurentius late Latin 8th — 10th centuries
  2. Vilanova de Lourenzá medieval Galician from the 12th century

Reflections, to the letter

Vilanova names the medieval town founded in the shadow of the Benedictine monastery. Lourenzá, in turn, leads to the lay founder of the abbey: count Osorio Gutiérrez, a 10th-century Jacobean pilgrim known as the Holy Count. The Baroque abbey church preserves his tomb with a recumbent 12th-century effigy. The monastery was among the principal Benedictine centres of northern Galicia during the Middle Ages.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Glossary

Anthroponym
A personal name, often used as the base of toponyms (Lucronius → Logroño, Sigerici → Castrojeriz, Sacavus → Sacavém).

Sources

  • Navaza, G. — Toponimia de Galicia

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Camino del Norte

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. Baamonde
  3. Vilalba
  4. Goiriz
  5. Abadín
  6. Mondoñedo
  7. Lourenzá
  8. Vilanova de Lourenzá
  9. Ribadeo
  10. Castropol
  11. Tapia de Casariego
  12. La Caridad
  13. Navia
  14. Otur
  15. ··· toward the start