Romanesque Mata's church

The Church of Sant Andreu de Mata is a Romanesque church of XI century built on a cemetery. Its structure is unique both for the solid consistency of the whole and for the arrangement of the access door in a side façade. This door, with a semicircular arch, preserves the spiral fittings of the primitive Romanesque door.
The belfry reinforces the originality of the whole of its wide-vaulted roof on four sides.

• The first reference to the parish of Sant Andreu de Mata “parrochia Sancti Andree de Mata” is from the year 1019, when the bishop of Girona, Pere Roger (1010-1050), and the counts of Barcelona Ramon Berenguer I and Ermessenda donated the church to the canonry. of Girona.
• On October 21, 1333, Infante Pere [el Cerimoniós], eldest son of the King of Aragon [Alfons el Benigne], sent a letter to the judges Pere Descatllar and Berenguer Vives asking them to find out what was happening in the parish of Sant Andreu de Mata, in the Terri valley, since the inhabitants of the area wanted to build more houses and the abbot of Banyoles was preventing them from doing so, even though it was under royal jurisdiction. As a result, Infante Pere gave permission to build on December 7, although the letter in which this was communicated was not signed until January 3, 1334.
• In the 14th century, the jurisdiction of the parish of Mata was sold by Pere el Cerimoniós to Pere d'Usall, his waiter.
• In 1579 it was added to Sant Julià de Corts and in 1928 in an annex of Corts.
• In 1936 (civil war) a polychrome wooden Virgin was burned.
• In 1951 it was renovated, destroying the original apse and building a new transept and apse.
• In 1965 it became independent and became a parish.

It consists of a single nave with a barrel vault built of carved stone from Mata.