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The Royal Monastery of Santa Clara

Tordesillas, Tierra del Vino, Valladolid

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

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The Royal Monastery of Santa Clara

Monument · Tordesillas, Tierra del Vino, Valladolid

The Real Monasterio de Santa Clara, in Tordesillas (Valladolid), stands on the bluff above the river Duero, protected by the town's old walls, and brings together the convent of Poor Clare nuns, the rooms of the former palace and a set of Moorish baths. It began as the Mudéjar palace of Alfonso XI, called Pelea de Benimerín, commissioned around 1340 to commemorate the Battle of Salado. Peter I completed the works and in 1363 handed it to his daughters to turn it into a convent, endorsed by Pope Urban VI in 1365. It served as a place of confinement for Leonor Téllez de Meneses, accused of conspiring against the Crown, and at Christmas 1808 Napoleon Bonaparte stayed there for one night because of a snowstorm. It is the town's most notable religious building and retains a good part of the original palace's decoration.

Photo: Jl FilpoC (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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