the cloister of San Juan de la Peña

the cloister of San Juan de la Peña (more info)

As a result of the Muslim invasion, a number of hermits vanished themselves to this remote spot in the Pyrenees of Huesca (Spain) and they created a meeting point for hermit life which lived on until the 10th century. In the year 920, Galindo Aznarez II, Count of Aragón, conquered the lands South of the river Aragón, reaching the mountains of San Juan de la Peña, where he founded a monastery devoted to St Julián and St Basilisa, which was erected in the same place where the hermits used to live. The romanesque cloister of San Juan de la Peña built in the 12th century, this is the most important part of the monastery and it is sheltered under the rock of the mountain, which functions as a natural vault and turns this into the only cloister in the world with such a shelter. It is worth remarking on its romanesque capitals dating back to the 12th and 13th century. 2003-04-24

Pyrenees of Huesca, Spain

the cloister of San Juan de la Peña