Logbook · 7 places

Monastery of Santa María la Real de Valdeiglesias

Pelayos de la Presa, Sierra Oeste, Madrid

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

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Monastery of Santa María la Real de Valdeiglesias

Monument · Pelayos de la Presa, Sierra Oeste, Madrid

The monastery of Santa María la Real de Valdeiglesias, also called the monastery of Pelayos, lies north of the arroyo de la Presa, near Pelayos de la Presa. Its construction, by the Cistercian order, dates from 1150, in the 12th century, with improvements from the 15th onward; the 1836 Mendizábal disentailment and the departure of the monks set it on the path to ruin. In 1854 the choir stalls, a Plateresque work by Rafael de León from between 1567 and 1571, were moved, as a gift from Isabella II, to the cathedral of Murcia, after a fire destroyed the previous stalls. The architect Mariano García Benito acquired the ruins in 1974, restored them and donated them to the town council of Pelayos de la Presa in 2003. It was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) by royal decree of 23 November 1983.

Photo: Arturo R Montesinos (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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