Path of the monasteries

60 km. 71 minutes

Few valleys treasure such a wealth of heritage as that of the Cárdenas River. We approach it from the head of the region, Nájera, where the monastery of Santa María la Real is located. It was founded by King D. García Sánchez III, ended in 1052 and reflects the Baroque styles, the last period of the Gothic and the beginning of the Renaissance. In its royal pantheon there are twelve tombs of two dynasties (the Abarca and García Ramírez) and in its cloister of the Knights, numerous nobles are buried.

From here and through the towns of Badarán and Berceo, we reach San Millán de la Cogolla, with its monasteries of Yuso and Suso, a World Heritage Site and birthplace of the first Spanish words written by the most famous poet of this valley, Gonzalo de Berceo. Suso (the one above) emerged from the caves inhabited by the hermit disciples of San Millán, in the 6th century, and Yuso (the one below) was built to expand Suso’s in the 11th century and rebuilt during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. It combines different styles: Renaissance and Baroque mainly.

This impressive construction houses treasures such as the library, which is preserved as it was definitively furnished at the end of the seventeenth century, and which, next to the file, can be considered one of the best in Spain.

We completed this route in the Cistercian abbey of Cañas, which began to be built in the thirteenth century and lasted until the XVIII, from which its main cover dates. It surprises the great luminosity of the monastery church, the large Renaissance altarpiece and the cover of the chapter hall.

“The monasteries of Yuso and Suso are a World Heritage Site and the cradle of Spanish for writing in them the first words in this language”

“Few valleys treasure as much beauty and heritage wealth as the Cardenas River”

HIGHLIGHTS