We had never heard of the Monasterio de Piedra, but around here it is a major tourist attraction, although apparently not at the end of October. Darren happened to read about it when we were looking for campsites and it seemed worth a look.
We set out to walk to it this morning, and we took a cross country route following a pathway led us past amazingly colourful rocks and trees. There was an incredible church perched on top of a seam of striped rocks that was angled at 45 degrees from the valley floor.
We did not see another person en route, but there was a few other tourists at the Monasterio. It is set at the end of the valley with a river, waterfalls and trout lakes. We went to see this first, and it was so good that I am writing a separate blog about it.
Back to the Monastery - it took 23 years to be built and the Monks moved in in 1218. They lived there for over 700 years, but in 1835 the Monastery and surrounding land was confiscated by the Minister of Taxes who sold them at auction to raise funds for the State.
The leaflet didn't explain the obvious difficult questions; what happened to the Monks, how the Minister of Taxes got away with it, or why a lot of it is in ruins.
Oh well, that is Spain for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment