The laura and coenobium of Saint Pedro of Rocas. A rupestrian complex of Byzantine origin in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

The building we see today when we approach the monastery of SaintPedro of Rocas reveals the modern architecture: the priory house. But thisarchitecture "hides" another one that corresponds to the various constructionphases carved in the rock, both in its worship, residential and funeraryfunction. An architecture excavated in the rock that is directly related to itshermitic origins linking Saint Pedro of Rocas with an anchoretic traditioncharacteristic of the territory in which it is located and which we know asRibeira Sacra. Many are the questions, and the enigmas, which still containsSaint Pedro of Rocas and it is precisely in the rock where we find the answersto those questions. We do not intend to solve them within the framework of thisarticle, but we will point out some reflections that allow us to understand thecomplexity and enormous historical dimension that enclose the rock of SaintPedro of Rocas. The data that we are obtaining from the interdisciplinaryresearch that we have been carrying out points to a clear oriental origin in theforms of community life that took place in Saint Pedro of Rocas. The influenceof Saint Martín of Dumio (bishop of Braga, in the second half of the 6thcentury) in the importation of monastic life forms of Syrian-Palestinian originended up configuring an architecture carved into the rock at the service of aclearly Byzantine liturgy.