The presence of a primitive basilica (Roman church) constructed in the 4th century influenced King Theodemar of the Suebic Kingdom of Galicia (+570) to choose this town as see when he created the Diocese of Egitânia no later than 559–569. Around 585, the Romanesque cathedral started to be constructed, that included not only the main structure by the baptistery and the hypothetical palace. That was also the year that Suebic Galicia was annexed by the Visigoths, and was turned into the sixth province of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania.