Convent of Santa María La Real de Las Huelgas

The oldest historic site in the care of Patrimonio Nacional is located in Las Huelgas del Rey, in the province of Burgos. It is an essential stopover on the Pilgrim's Route to Santiago de Compostela. A church, cloisters, chapels and gardens make up the main convent of Cistercian nuns in Spain, who owe obedience solely to the Pope in Rome. Between battles, future kings were knighted at Las Huelgas. The founding monarchs, Alfonso VIII and his wife Eleonor, also conceived it as a royal mausoleum with magnificent tombs.

Today, more than 800 years later, the perfect harmony of periods and styles can be admired in the walls of Las Huelgas. Arresting Mudejar plasterwork vaults coexist alongside sober Romanesque arches and ambitious Gothic ornamentation. The experience is rounded off by a visit to the Museum of Medieval Textiles, which preserves the original banner of Las Navas de Tolosa, the battle that marked the decline of Muslim rule on the Iberian Peninsula in 1212.