Monastery of Santa María la Real de la Oliva

Anyone visiting Carcastillo, in Navarre's Zona Media, will find something rather unusual at Santa María la Real de la Oliva: a medieval monastery that is not merely stone and memory, but a place where people still pray, work and make wine. That continuity, restored after centuries of ups and downs, is perhaps what most impresses visitors, even before they step through the doors of its church.

The monastery was founded in the 12th century under the patronage of King García Ramírez and has the distinction of being the first foundation of the Cistercian Order in the Kingdom of Navarre. Also known as Nuestra Señora de la Oliva, it is regarded as one of the purest ensembles of Cistercian art anywhere in Spain, true to the ideal of simplicity championed by St Bernard.

The undisputed highlight is the abbey church. Built at the height of the transition from Romanesque to Gothic, it is striking both for its monumental proportions and for the almost total austerity of its decoration. There are no ornaments here to distract the eye: the beauty lies in the scale, the light and the clean lines – exactly what the white monks sought when designing their churches.

The monastery's history has been far from straightforward. Mendizábal's Disentailment emptied its buildings and ushered in a long period of neglect that put the whole complex at risk. Monastic life returned in 1927 with a community of Trappist monks, who restored the building to its original purpose.

Today La Oliva is a designated national monument and Bien de Interés Cultural, yet above all it remains an active spiritual centre. Added to this is its wine production, which allows travellers to take home a very earthly souvenir of a place devoted to contemplation.