Logbook · 20 places

Monastery of San Juan Bautista de Corias

Cangas del Narcea, Narcea, Asturias

1 Villages · 5 Monuments · 7 Nature · 2 Activities · 3 Curiosities · 2 Historical milestones

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Monastery of San Juan Bautista de Corias

Monument · Cangas del Narcea, Narcea, Asturias

Founded in 1032 by counts Piniolo Jiménez and Aldonza Muñoz and occupied by Benedictine monks, it is known as the Asturian Escorial. It reached its greatest splendour between the 12th and 13th centuries, when it came to own land across much of western Asturias and the neighbouring province of León. A fire in 1773 destroyed the whole building except the church, forcing it to be rebuilt in Neoclassical style, with a rectangular plan around two courtyards, under the direction of Miguel Ferro Caaveiro. After the disentailment it served as a school, a prison and, from 1860, a college for Dominican missionaries. Declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico Nacional (a former national heritage-protection designation, predecessor of today's Bien de Interés Cultural) in 1982 and restored between 2006 and 2012, it has operated as a Parador Nacional since 15 July 2013.

Photo: Paradores (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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