Arriving at the Church of Santo Estevo (St Stephen) of Buño in Malpica de Bergantiños, Costa da Morte, you climb a broad staircase that leads to the churchyard and a modest yet characterful temple. Rough rubble-stone walls embrace the building, while the main façade in irregular ashlar reveals the handiwork of local stonemasons. This is a Modern Age (16th–18th century) church that keeps the spirit of Galician popular religious architecture alive.
The layout features a single nave with lateral chapels attached on both sides and a small side porch sheltering a secondary entrance. The roofline blends traditional solutions: gable roof over the nave and three- and four-slope roofs over the chapels, all finished with curved local tiles, giving the silhouette a restrained, timeless elegance above the Buño landscape.
On the façade, the main doorway is crowned by a Baroque niche holding a simple sculpture of St Stephen topped with a scallop shell. Above it, a rectangular window leads the eye to the two-bay bell-gable (espadana) with round arches, a cornice, and an upper body capped with pinnacles and finials. Inside, whitewashed plastered walls create a luminous atmosphere that contrasts with the ashlar openings and arches, highlighting the beauty of the stone and the harmony of the whole.
