This lectuary, located in the Coto neighborhood (parish of Cesantes, Redondela), dates from the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. It is a sign that identifies an official route controlled by the Crown and that establishes the distance in leagues to the final destination of the road. This Lectuary of A Pantalla, as it is known, is unique. It does not have the usual pinnacle shape found in other cases. Here we have a more monumental element, unique throughout the royal road. Its location tells us that we are at the entrance to the town of Redondela, but it also has the commemorative function of the construction of the road. A road that, in fact, had already been prepared by the Romans who had given it the name of Via XIX and that in medieval times was converted into the Portuguese Way to Santiago de Compostela. The epigraph that existed was intentionally deleted for two possible reasons: the memory of the Old Regime or the simple monarchical reference. It is possible that it reproduced something similar to the lectuary located next to the Vilavella convent: “reigning Lord Carlos IV…”. Popular tradition gave it a more everyday use. The young people threw stones at the tympanum (the triangular space) with the purpose of placing them on the cornice. If it stayed, the boy was going to marry his girlfriend.
