Ponferrada - Santo Tomás de las Ollas

After the Romans had conquered the place in the Astur-Cantabrian Wars (29–19 BC) and the area became the largest mining center of the Empire during the Roman period, where gold and other metals and minerals were extracted. The Romans also imported grapevines.

The modern name of the city derives from the iron reinforcements added to the ancient bridge over the river Sil, commissioned in 1082 by Bishop Osmundo of Astorga to facilitate the crossing of the Sil River to pilgrims in their way to Santiago de Compostela.

Santo Tomás de las Ollas is located in the suburb of Ponferrada of the same name.

There are no documents about the construction of the church. The use of the building material, the horseshoe arches of the apse and other similarities with pre-Romanesque churches suggest that the church can be attributed to Mozarabic architecture of the 10th century. In the Romanesque period the church was changed and the south portal was renewed. At the end of the 17th century, the height of the nave was shortened and a square chapel was built in the north. The bell tower was added in the 18th century and the sacristy was added to the apse in the 19th century.