"This research project at the Institute of Heritage Sciences (INCIPIT) of the Spanish Council for Research (CSIC), aims to generate new scientific knowledge on the archeology and history of the early medieval rural churches and their value for cultural management in Galicia, in Northwest Spain. In this sense, this proposal aims to create a fruitful link between the applicant’s historical-archaeological research background and skills and the opportunities to learn and to develop a cultural heritage outreach project. At a historical level, churches will be here understood, beyond as mere physical constructions, like real vehicles and expressions of social interactions, at different levels, in the period of crutial changes between 5th and 11th centuries. All the evidences will be compilled, for the fist time, through an interdisciplinary methodology (archaeology, texts, places names... integrated in a GIS) and studied from a contextualized and comparative european perspective. Results will be disseminated by means of several impact publications. Regardingthe heritage perspective this project aims to allow the applicant to learn how to re-direct all this knowledge towards a proper and effective management and comunication of the important and rather unknown heritage value of the remains of these buildings: architectural, archaeological (unearth or visible), artistic, documentary or even toponymic. Both objectives are interrelated since only an adequate historical knowledge allows for a correct heritage management."