Santa Cruz de la Serós · Aragonese Pyrenees · Spain

Monasterio nuevo de San Juan de la peña

monasteryRomanesque architecturenaturegoogle verified

moderate

9/10

best: spring, autumn, morning

awe-inspiring, remote, historic

A local would say...

This monastery was built under a giant boulder — its roof is a cliff face, its walls are rock, and it has been here for a thousand years.

San Juan de la Peña is a medieval monastery complex built into and under an overhanging lip of rock — a geological improbability that creates one of the most dramatic settings of any religious building in Europe. Its highlight is a Romanesque cloister with marvellous 12th- and 13th-century carved capitals depicting Genesis and the life of Christ, all sheltered by the boulder that the monastery was literally built inside.