Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla

Few places let you take in so many centuries of religious history at a glance as San Millán de la Cogolla. Visitors arriving in this corner of La Rioja find not one monastery but two: San Millán de Suso and San Millán de Yuso, which together form an institution founded in the 6th century that, remarkably, is still alive today.

It all began with a hermit, Millán, who chose this landscape as his place of retreat. A community gradually grew up around him and, with it, a tradition that has continued unbroken ever since. The monks who live here today regard themselves as the direct heirs of that hermit, which gives a visit an unusual sense of continuity.

What is fascinating is how this same community has changed shape over time. First there were hermits, then a cenobitic community; later came a Visigothic double monastery following the Hispanic rule, and after that a Mozarabic one. The Benedictines arrived next, and today the convent is in the hands of the friars of the Order of Augustinian Recollects. Each stage is a chapter in the history of monastic life on the Peninsula.

Such was its importance in the Middle Ages that San Millán is considered a true centre of medieval culture. That is why it pays to take your time and give both complexes, Suso and Yuso, the attention they deserve, to understand how a solitary retreat ended up becoming one of the most important cultural hubs of its age.