SPAIN | Burgos, Spain Travel Guide
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
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Royal Monastery of Las Huelgas
Royal Monastery of Las Huelgas
Burgos
Castilla y León
Spain
94 720 16 30
Type: Religious Site
Addmission Fee: 4.80 Euro, students 2.40 Euro including a tour in Spanish
Hours: April-Sept., Tues.-Sat. 10:30 am-1:15 pm and 4:00-5:45 pm, Sun. 10:30 am-2:15 pm; Oct.-Mar., Tues.-Fri. 11:00 am-1:15 pm and 4:00-5:45 pm, Sun. 10:30 am-2:15 pm
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Burgos
Castilla y León
Spain
94 720 16 30
Type: Religious Site
Addmission Fee: 4.80 Euro, students 2.40 Euro including a tour in Spanish
Hours: April-Sept., Tues.-Sat. 10:30 am-1:15 pm and 4:00-5:45 pm, Sun. 10:30 am-2:15 pm; Oct.-Mar., Tues.-Fri. 11:00 am-1:15 pm and 4:00-5:45 pm, Sun. 10:30 am-2:15 pm
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Rating (0 Votes)
In the park by the river I had asked an older man for directions to a restaurant in town, never having expected him to take me on a tour of the city that culminated at the desolate, almost ghost-town of the Royal Monastery of Las Huelgas. “Peregrino?” he asked. “No,” I said, “I’ve got a car.”
The tour of the monastery consisted of his pointing at plaques and my reading them (the official and obligatory tour is given in Spanish every 30 minutes). What the man wasn’t telling me was that the monastery was founded in 1187 by Queen Leonor of quitaine, wife of Alfonso VIII.
It’s a spectacular fenced complex and more than once my silent tourist guide shushed me so that I would not disturb the 35 Cistercian nuns living inside. The church has three naves with a hoard of Gothic tombs attesting to its services as a pantheon; among the dead are King Alfonso VIII and his wife the founder, King Enrique I and his Queen Berenguela, and enough lesser royals linked to the Crown of Castile to fill a mass grave.
Of its five chapels, the Mudéjar-style Capilla de Santiago contains a wooden image of the Apostle St. James with a moving arm once used to dub knights. The Sala Capitular (chapterhouse) displays the tent flap taken from the Moorish camp after the Christians had defeated them at Navas de Tolosa. The Monastery was commissioned during a celebratory high following the victory.
The monastery’s Museo de Ricas Telas (medieval fabrics museum) is rich from pillaging. It displays the standard taken from the Arabs at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa and the royal garments taken from the cold bodies entombed in the monastery. A fast walker can reach the Monasterio de las Huelgas Reales in 20 minutes from the Arco de Santa María.
And it’s a nice walk through the gardens along the river. Exiting from the Arco de Santa María, make a right and follow the Paseo de la Isla as far as the circular Plaza de Castilla. Cross the bridge and continue in the same direction on the opposite river bank.
Past the next block, the Avda Monasterio de Las Huelgas can be picked up on the left. The other option is to catch bus 5 or 7 at one of the stops on the avenue that follows the river (it has many names depending where you are: Avda Valladolid, Sierra de Atapuerca, La Merced – all the same).
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