The Spanish Inquisition was an institution founded in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, but shortly after starting its career, it already had many crimes resulting from religious hyper-heterodoxy.
The Portal of the Inquisition is the only remnant that remains of the pazo of which its founder was Bartolomé Barbeito y Padrón, first inquisitor of the Tribunal Censor del Galicia in 1677, a position he would hold for eleven years ruling as maximum authority with the complacency of the Inquisitor General.
The place name that identifies the place has its origin in the house that Bartolomé Barbeito y Padrón, a schoolboy from San Clemente and an apostolic inquisitor born in Corzáns, founded, at a time when the repression exerted by the Holy Office in Galicia had already remitted, after the period of fierce persecution, the most representative Jewish communities, such as Ribadavia, Ourense, Pontevedra and Tui, among others. After practicing in Santiago, -where he was a professor at the University-, Murcia, Valladolid and Madrid, he decided to build the House-School for clerics of his family, very close to the place where his parents had founded the Piñeiro mayorazgo.
The remains of the original building are rare today, since the current construction is the product of the successive reforms carried out. The monumental Portalón is still standing for the most part, and is one of the best samples of its kind that is known, both for the quality of the factory, excellent seating, and for its proportions.
The doorway consists of two bodies divided horizontally by an imposed molding: the lower one opens the semi-circular arched door formed by voussoirs, while the upper one, finished by a cornice also molded, is spectacular, as three coats of arms embellish it, among which the following inscription is read:
"MANDOLA FABRICAR ÉL Sr. D. BARTOLOMÉ BARBEITO Y PADRON/ NATURAL DE ESTA FELIGRESÍA/ INQUISIDOR APOSTÓLICO Y ME Las ANTIGUO DE ESTE REINO DE GALICIA/ CORDERO DE 1668/ PARA CLERIGOS DE SU FAMILIA Y VECINOS DE ESTA FELIGRESÍA A FALTA DE AQUELLOS"
The remains that overcame the aggressions to which it was subjected over the years, such as the Portalón, are preserved from the closing wall that delimited the property. The shields occupy the central part of the Portalón, where it takes greater height. The one on the left, today demolished, is outside the complex and referred to the father's parental ancestry, that is, Marino, Valladares, Padrón and Barbeito; the one on the right, split and half cut, represents the maternal affiliation: Suárez, Ozores and Puga. The one located in the center, on a higher plane, indicates the condition of inquisitor of Bartolomé, whose ecclesiastical dignity comes to be confirmed in the stamp of each one of the shields: capelo of which hang, on both sides, the two cords with six tassels each, proper to the bishops. The inscription is sculpted in the space limited by these heraldic representations.