Monasterio de Piedra

On the banks of the River Piedra, near Nuévalos in the comarca of Calatayud, stands one of the most visited places in Aragon. What today's traveller explores as a large tourist complex was, for more than six centuries, a Cistercian monastery dedicated to Santa María la Blanca, and it still preserves features that speak of that long monastic life.

Its story begins in 1194, when thirteen monks arriving from Poblet settled in the old castle of Piedra Vieja. From then on the monastery grew in three main phases: a first Gothic phase in the 13th century, another in which Gothic blended with Renaissance taste during the 16th century and, finally, a classical and Baroque stage in the 18th century. It is precisely this layering of periods that gives the complex its character.

It is worth noting how the walled precinct was entered: through the keep, which dates from the Middle Ages. The church, lost in the early decades of the 19th century, connected with the cloister, which opens through large pointed arches crowned by capitals with carved Byzantine-inspired foliage. Another of the building's gems is the main staircase, which rises in two broad flights resting on arches and covered by a beautiful vault.

Religious life came to an end in 1835, when Mendizábal's ecclesiastical confiscations forced the monks to abandon the monastery. Five years later it was bought by a private individual, who turned it into a tourist establishment, a use it has kept to this day. Its value was recognised in 1983, when it was declared a National Monument, and it remains an essential stop for anyone wishing to combine heritage and landscape in the interior of the province of Zaragoza.