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Monastery of San Andrés de Arroyo

Santibáñez de Ecla, La Ojeda, Palencia

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

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Monastery of San Andrés de Arroyo

Monument · Santibáñez de Ecla, La Ojeda, Palencia

A women's Cistercian monastery founded in 1181 by Countess Mencía López de Haro under the tutelage of the Burgos abbey of Las Huelgas, at the site of San Andrés de Arroyo, in the municipality of Santibáñez de Ecla, in the comarca of La Ojeda. The church, of Latin-cross plan with a single nave of five bays, was consecrated in 1222 and retains a late Romanesque portal; the cloister, with pointed arches on paired columns, is the finest piece in the complex, and the chapter house holds the sarcophagi of the first two abbesses. Declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico Nacional (a former national heritage designation, later folded into the Bien de Interés Cultural) on 3 June 1931 and restored in 1958, it remains home to one of the largest enclosed communities in Spain, which keeps a guesthouse and sells pastries. The church, cloister and chapter house can be visited.

Photo: Carmen Escobar Carrio (CC BY 2.0)

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