The monastery of San Martiño de Xuvia is located in a privileged enclave of the municipality of Naronés. In the parish of Couto, a few meters from the estuary, the convent, currently owned by the diocese of Mondoñedo-Ferrol, is one of the main tourist attractions of the city.

Various studies place the date of construction of this monastery in the 9th century, although they agree in highlighting that the time of its greatest splendor was reached with its incorporation into the Order of Cluny, in the 12th century, after a donation from the Traba family. Previously, in the Middle Ages, Benedictine monks were in charge of both the church and the rectory. Until the confiscation of church property by Mendizábal, which began in Spain in the 18th century, the monastery was incorporated as a priory into the monastery of San Salvador de Lourenzá (Lugo).

The building preserves the Romanesque church from the 12th and 13th centuries, although over the years some work has been done to preserve it. The basilica floor plan of the temple has three naves with five sections with projecting arches and carved capitals on pillars of large columns that separate the main nave from the building. Inside, several tombs from the medieval period are preserved, including that of the knight Rodrigo Esquío, from the 15th century. Outside the monastery there are three apses with semicircular windows and also its main façade, which has been the subject of several reconstructions.

The Ministry of Culture declared this monastery, located on the Jacobean route of the English Way, a national artistic monument in 1972.