Monasterio de San Juan de Ortega

In the 12th century, San Juan de Ortega (Juan de Quintanaortuño), a disciple of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, devoted himself to repairing the path for pilgrims and founded the monastery to provide accommodation for them in the Montes de Oca (De Oca mountains). He established a community of Canon Regulars and he is buried in the monastery, in a beautiful Romanesque tomb, to which Isabel la Católica added a mausoleum.  

The monastery, occupied by Hieronymites from 1432 up to the 19th century “Desamortización” (state appropriation of Church lands), contains a three-apse church from the 12th and 13th centuries, finished in the 15th century. Restored in 1964. 

Admire windows in the central apse, vaults, transverse arches, capitals (Capitel de la Anunciación), a Gothic mausoleum in the church, a Romanesque tomb, two cloisters, one Neoclassical almost in ruins and the other from the 15th century with flattened arches in red stone. 

The baldachin from the 15th century has 6 paintings depicting scenes of the Saint’s life. At the centre of the crypt is the sarcophagus with the remains of San Juan, and on one side the Romanesque tomb. 

The set is complete with the Capilla de San Nicolás, the lattice work from the 16th century with remains of altarpieces and the guesthouse, with a 16th century yard.