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Cloister of Santa María la Real

Aguilar de Campoo, Montaña Palentina, Palencia

1 Villages · 8 Monuments · 1 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

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Cloister of Santa María la Real

Monument · Aguilar de Campoo, Montaña Palentina, Palencia

The cloister belongs to the monastery of Santa María la Real, a former Premonstratensian abbey in Aguilar de Campoo, in the Montaña Palentina, whose fabric, in a style transitional from Romanesque to Gothic with Cistercian elements, began to be built after King Alfonso VIII handed the monastery over, in 1169, to the abbot of Santa María de Retuerta, in Sardón de Duero, administered by Premonstratensian canons. Of Cistercian design and square plan, the cloister rises over two storeys with ribbed vaults and round arches opening onto the central garden; its historiated capitals, from the 12th and 13th centuries, are among the finest of Palencia Romanesque. The complex, a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), today houses a secondary school, the UNED and the ROM Museum: Románico y Territorio.

Photo: Arroyito (CC BY-SA 3.0)

What to see and do in Aguilar de Campoo