The period to be reviewed, due to the extension of six centuries and the fluidity of the chronology when we are dealing with specific works, does not allow itself to be framed in traditional schemes and limits as it takes root in Christian Romanity and dissolves in the great change of the 11th century.

Thus delimited, the space is that of Galician society marked by the memory of Rome and religiously linked to that legacy but also by the previous cultural substrate. A collection that forms part of the essential unity of European societies fully established in the 8th and 9th centuries and that has its foundations in the late Roman tradition.

This historical and cultural cycle is opened by the Swabian kingdom and continued by the Visigoths and in it Romanism, Christianity and Germanism converge. The art of this period continues the late imperial tradition; it is a direct heir of Paleo-Christianity and to the late Roman traits the contribution of the conquerors increases, in an already Christianized environment.

The Muslim conquest meant a change of scenery in the peninsula as a whole, but in Galicia the Islamic domain was not consolidated, which led to the formation of a Christian area, which corresponded to the former province of Gallaecia. The discovery of Santiago's tomb is located at this height, momentous for the political and cultural future.

Galician art, strongly rooted in the tradition of the Low Empire and in Germanic, with elements of a Gallic substratum always present, was not substantially affected by the Islamic world, something evident in the cathedral of Santiago.

This basilica, erected in the time of Afonso III (872) and destroyed by Almanzor (997), was one of the most important buildings of the time, larger than the contemporary Asturian churches, far from the monumentality of the Ottonian constructions and the architecture carried out beyond the Pyrenees, with whom , however, this type of building is in debt. Other constructions such as San Xes de Francelos take us to the classical world with a lattice with the vine motif.

The weight of tradition characterizes the well-known Galician temples of the 10th century, such as Santa Mª de Mixós. They are simple buildings, with the exception, among the preserved, of Santa Miguel de Celanova, a masterpiece of tenth-century architecture. The plants of these churches are varied; basilicas like Mixós or Santa Eufemia de Ambía; single nave with rectangular apse like San Salvador de Samos, Santa Mª de Loio or Santo Antoniño de Toques; of a horseshoe nave and apse like San Martiño de Pazó, San Martiño de Mondoñedo and Santa Mª de Vilanova dos Infantes. Singular is San Miguel de Celanova, a small oratory built by San Rosendo (940). It is a perfect example of what since the work of Gómez Moreno mozarabic churches (1919) is called Mozarabic architecture, terminology today questioned, because it is indisputable that these buildings respond functionally and technically to the pre-Islamic tradition. Celanova, moreover, does not seem to have been built by Mozarabs. In addition, San Rosendo is linked to the monarchy - he is not a Mozarab - and even in Bercia territory Santiago de Penalba owes the construction to Galician promoters such as San Xenadio.

In other Galician temples we have decorations close to Celanova, such as the alfiz of San Martiño de Pazó or the modillions preserved in the church of Santa Mª de Vilanova dos Infantes. The remains of other churches also respond to the artistic atmosphere of the diocese of Ourense: San Xoán de Camba and Reza Vella.

The sculpture of this period is limited to flat reliefs, often with a bevel, reliefs in the few representations of figures, such as the orante of San Martiño de Pazó. The Camba reliefs may be somewhat later, but they are of an earlier tradition and of rudimentary forms, without the presence of Romanesque formulas. The decorative elements, such as the bevelled modillions of Celanova or Vilanova dos Infantes, although with Córdoba influences, connect with the Gallic tradition that goes back even to the Castrejo world with rosettes and helical wheels.