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Monastery of San Miguel de Escalada

Gradefes, Tierras de León, León

1 Villages · 5 Monuments · 1 Activities · 1 Curiosities · 2 Historical milestones

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Monastery of San Miguel de Escalada

Monument · Gradefes, Tierras de León, León

The monastery of San Miguel de Escalada stands near the village of the same name, in the municipality of Gradefes, 27 kilometres from León and on the route of the Way of St James. Of its former monastic complex only the church survives today, a Mozarabic monastery built in the early 10th century by a community of monks who had come from Córdoba fleeing the Islamic invasions, and who raised it over an earlier hermitage, reusing Visigothic- and Roman-era materials from the nearby city of Lancia. Restored in the year 913 by Abbot Alfonso, it is considered one of the most representative works of pre-Romanesque Mozarabic art in León, together with Santiago de Peñalba and San Cebrián de Mazote. It was declared a Monumento Nacional (National Monument, an earlier Spanish heritage designation) on 28 February 1886.

Photo: Simon Burchell (CC BY-SA 4.0)

What to see and do in Gradefes