"The As Lagoas neighborhood , originally made up of buildings built mostly under the cooperative regime and by social housing, was initially made up of different types of inhabitants (merchants, teachers, and the military) and prominent companies, such as the newspaper La Región , the Coren agri-food cooperative and the Renfe railway company , the railway being located at the entrance to the neighborhood, which in 2009 housed around 4,500 inhabitants.
Following the guidelines set by the 1959 urban plan, the decision was made to erect a parish church in the neighborhood, which would be commissioned by Pedro Gómez Antón, priest and first director of the local radio station Radio Popular de Ourense , of the Cope chain , although the construction of the temple initially presented the inconvenience that in the vicinity there was already another church, that of La Asunción , inaugurated in 1964. The Permanent Municipal Commission, at the request of the Institute for Public Promotion of Housing, approved in 1982 the granting of the corresponding license for the erection of the sanctuary, Work of the architects Luis Garaizabal Enjuto and Luis Chao Gómez. The first mass would be officiated on October 7, 1984, 1 while the first child baptized in the church was the son of the painter José Carlos Vázquez, artistically known as "Basalo." In principle, the newcomers from other neighborhoods were reluctant to leave their old parish as well as to accept the aesthetics of the temple, austere according to the principles of the Second Vatican Council and far from the traditional baroque of the city's churches, aggravated all this in turn by the absence during the first months of banks and religious images, which would begin to reach the temple through donations.
The inauguration of the sanctuary, which took place officially on November 25, 1984, included the celebration of various ceremonies prior to the event. The first of them, officiated at the Episcopal Palace on the morning of November 20, consisted of the delivery to the parish by Bishop Ángel Temiño Saiz of a carving of the Virgin of Portovello, donated in turn to the bishop by the Unión company Fenosa , 1The image being enthroned in the afternoon in a solemn act and later organizing a conference on the history of Portovello and the origins of the neighborhood. For its part, on November 25, the temple was blessed and a religious act was celebrated, attended by more than a thousand people, which was presided over by the bishop, who officiated mass together with the parish priest, various priests of the city ??and several members of the cathedral chapter, counting the event with the performance of a music band, several pipers and the Coral de Ruada , which interpreted songs in Spanish, Galician and Latin, the mayor and various other authorities also attended. local policies.
Description
Altar
The façade has a simple asymmetrical rectangular shape with oblique lateral ear flaps and a triangular shape to the right of the entrance crowned by a large cross. Inside, with a single floor plan with a semicircular shape and a jatoba and ipé wooden platform , the temple houses an altar presided over by a large cross made of polished and varnished ipé wood which is outlined by a large window that provides natural light to the structure, with a crucified Christ on it, the work of the sculptor Acisclo Manzano. October NovemberThe sanctuary, built with iron, concrete and exposed cement and lined inside with wood and cork, has ornaments made mostly of wrought iron, wood and cement-stone, particularly highlighting, among others, an image of Christ made in enamel and inlaid in iron and a Pantocrator by Sister Loreto (a Carmelite nun from Orense); wood carvings made by Pepe Flórez; two polished stone reliefs of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, by Carvajal, located on the altar to the right and left; and iron forges invoiced by Orense businesses, with various designs by José Luis de Dios being also present in the temple.
Under the cross of the altar and on both sides of it, there are several masts finished in a point like a grate, with images of the Immaculate Conception and the Sacred Heart on the left and right respectively. For its part, on the left front wall there is a statue of Saint Rita of Casia , next to which there is a tiny image of the Child Jesus wearing clothes , while on the right front wall there is a baroque carvingof the Virgin of Portovello, also to dress. The image shows the Virgin holding a rosary in her right hand while holding a small carving of the Child Jesus with her left, which was missing for years until a woman, who kept it at home, handed it over after supposedly hearing a voice that asked him to return the image.
Regarding the nave, on the wall of the gospel there is a relief of Saint Anthony of Padua , while on the wall of the epistle there is a relief of Saint Joseph , with a crucified Christ on the right and a Romanesque carving of Our Lady of Torreciudad on the left, installed in the church in 2019. This image, the only one that has an altarpiece and a small altar for its veneration, consists of a replica of the original, venerated in the Sanctuary of Torreciudad , which made a pilgrimage through several Spanish churches until, at the initiative of the Bishop of Orense, 13It was permanently installed in the Parish of Cristo Rey, this being the first time that the carving was established in a place of worship. The statue, which had just been in El Rocío , was enthroned on July 7 in a solemn ceremony presided over by the bishop and officiated together with several priests of the diocese.
Outside the temple, next to the building, stands out the one known as " Sobreira do Loña ", a cork oak tree over 400 years old, the only tree in the city included in the Árbores Senlleiras de Galicia catalog WM12VQ1."
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The door is aroun six metters of width, in brown wood and has twenty fou years old. Is simple because the coonstruction is of XX century.