San Juan de la Peña

From Puerto de Oroel a mountain road runs 11km/7mi west to the monastery of San Juan de la Peña (alt. 1,115m/3,658ft), magnificently situated in wooded country under an overhanging wall of rock. The monastery was founded in the ninth century but in its present form dates mainly from the 10th-12th centuries. From that period date the chapterhouse (10th century), the Mozarabic crypt (originally the lower church; dating in part from the ninth century) and the upper church, which was consecrated in 1094. In the sacristy of this church is the burial-place of the kings of Aragon, which was given its present form in the 18th century. Among those buried here are King Ramiro I and King Sancho Ramírez, and also, it is said, Doña Jimena, the Cid's wife. In front of the church is a small court with tomb recesses for the nobility of Aragon on the left hand side. Of the cloister, which is built into the rock, there remain only two wings, with finely carved capitals of the highest quality.