The name of the monastery, Valvanera, comes from a Latin expression, “Vallis Venaria” which means " “Valley of the veins of water" since the valley had lots of springs, streams and waterfalls.. The origin of the building of the shrine dates back to the discovery of a 9th-century image of Saint Mary by a repentant thief called Nuño Oñez, according to the “Historia Latina” written by the Abbot of Valvanera, Don Rodrigo de Castroviejo in 1419. It is the Latin translation of a 13th century text possibly written by Gonzalo de Berceo in the "vulgar mother" tongue.

The primitive community of hermit monks which built up around the discovery of the image in the 10th c. gave way to Benedictine friars. Originally, there was a Visigoth church, then a Pre-Romanesque one consecrated in 1073, another Romanesque one from 1183 of which only a tower remains standing, and finally the current 15th century church.

The main altar of the church holds the niche of the Virgin of Valvanera, which can be reached from the side. The upper part is presided over by a “Pantocrator” figure of Christ, and below there are figures representing St Peter, St Paul, St Benedict and St Atanasio.

The rest of the monastery is composed of 20th century buildings in honour of the Patron Saint of La Rioja. Homage is paid to Valvanera as the most important carving. The author and date of this work are unknown, but from its characteristics, it could be a sculpture in the Byzantine-Visigoth style. Its origin comes from the context of the renewed Marian fervour in Spain in the first half of the ninth century.

This convent was founded in 1598 in Calahorra with barefoot nuns of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Many were the people who supported the construction of its church, which was consecrated in the year 1642, among whom we should mention the Bishop of Calahorra y La Calzada, Pedro Manso de Zúñiga and the head of the Patronazgo, José González de Uzqueta.

The monastery church is currently the only part of the convent which can be visited. Consecrated in 1642, it has a Latin cross floor plan, with clearly Carmelite origins, which follows the religious model of the early 17th c. /span>

The façade of the church has a typical Carmelite rectangle crowned by a triangular top with balls. Over the main doorway is a stone image of San José with the infant from 1649 which comes from Madrid, with eagles on either side holding the arms of the González de Uzqueta family.

The main altar is in the classic style from the first half of the 17th century, in the centre of the body, a group of sculptures of the Trinity and Holy Family in the Castilian style of the school of Gregorio Fernández. In the side panels and attic, paintings of the life of Santa Teresa.

In the side altarpiece, on the left you can admire an extraordinary carving of Christ tied to a column, by Gregorio Fernández from 1625 and an oil painting of Jesus Saviour of the World.

In the central nave there are two neo-gothic altarpieces with the images of Saint Teresa de Jesús on the right hand side and the Holy Family on the left.

In the southern arm of the transept a 1644 painting by Bartolomé Román depicting the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew and in the lower choir, a magnificent Romanist crucifix from the late 16th c., by the Portuguese sculptor Manuel Pereira.

The monastery has lodging with a spacious inner patio. The Carmelite nuns who live here make exquisite sweets and confectionery in the monastic tradition.

The monastery has accommodation with a large inner patio. The Carmelite nuns who live there make delicious monastic cakes and sweets.

This Cistercian Abbey is one of the first to have been founded in Spain. Felipe Díaz de Haro, 9th Lord of Biscay and his wife, doña Aldonza Ruiz de Castro in 1170 gave the towns of Cañas and Canillas to the nuns of the monastery of Hayuela for them to found an Abbey in this spot.

Construction of the monastery was slow and there are three clearly distinguishable phases, the Romanesque of which there are barely any signs remaining, the Gothic, which would correspond to part of the church and chapter house, dating from the second half of the 13th c., and the later part from the 16th c., in which the construction of the central nave continued, with the side naves remaining unfinished. The main door to the monastery dates from 1757, with the part where the nuns live being the latest addition chronologically. Many of the stones used for the church still bear the marks of the mason who made them.>

The monastery church surprises you with its light through the large windows. The great Renaissance altarpiece is the work of Andrés de Melgar and Guillén de Holanda, commissioned by the Abbess, doña Leonor de Osorio around 1523 as a triptych, in which the theme is essentially based on Mary. Until 1975 it was in the presbytery, but is now to be seen at the foot of the church.

The doorway of the chapter house is of note for its unusual beauty, with three pointed arches decorated with plant motifs. Inside, is the early 14th c., gothic style tomb of the sister of charity, Doña Urraca López de Haro, daughter of the founders who took orders at a very early age and became the fourth abbess of the community. She died in 1262, and her body has been preserved incorrupt.

The abbey has been a pioneer of fibre optics, in the two museums it has: the Relics Room, which contains four groups of collections dating from the year the monastery was founded until the 20th c. among the numerous items on display, a Spanish Moorish casket from the 11th and 12th centuries of Cordoban origin is of note; and the museum of the tithe barn or store, in which various altarpieces have been displayed which existed n the churches, carvings, reliefs and paintings of special interest.

The community of Cistercian nuns who have lived uninterruptedly in the abbey since its foundation devote their time to handicrafts and prayer. They decorate china, make sweets, rosaries and have a small hospice.

Doña Aldonza Manrique de Lara, daughter of the Dukes of Nájera founded the monastery in the mid 16th c., outside the city. Nothing remains of this building and the current complex consists in church, cloister and other monastery buildings inside the cloister.

The monastery church is the only part open to visitors. It dates from the 17 th century and is the work of the stonemasons Pedro Ezquerra de Rozas and José de la Puente Liermo. Strung along the nave you can see various altarpieces of great beauty, two of them in Rococo style in the arms of the transept, one of them with the image of the Conception from the mid 17th c., and the other with that of Santa Clara. The main altarpiece in baroque style is made up of a base, a single block of three vertical series of panels and top piece, the work of Mateo Rubalcaba, in the centre of the body is a fine carving of Santa Elena.

Wrought iron railings at the foot of the church composed of two parts dating from 1660 separate the part open to the public from the closed order where nowadays the Franciscan Clarisa nuns live.

San Millán de la Cogolla is how this site made up of a village and the two monasteries is known, which has its roots in the community which grew up around the work of the hermit monk named Millán who lived 101 years (473-574) in caves in the sierra de la Demanda devoted to prayer. Suso from the Latin sursum means “at the top”, as the older of the monasteries is known, and Yuso, from the Latin deorsum, “at the bottom”. In 1997, they were both declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

Of the current Monastery of Suso, constructed between the 6th and 11th centuries, important vestiges remain of the different historic moments it has lived through. The rock caverns in which the hermits lived, the primitive Visigoth coenobium, the Mozarab enlargement and finally, the Romanesque.

Access to the monastery is through the portaello, where the tombs of the infantes de Lara and their tutor Nuño are located, accompanying the three Navarran queens.

Through the Mozarabic arch with alabaster capitals which recall the time of the caliph of Cordoba in the 10th c., decorated with designs depicting plant motifs and geometrical shapes, we enter inside the Mozarabic monastery with three large horseshoe arches. At the back we can see the remains of the primitive Visigoth construction.

The burial cave contains the tomb of the founder from the second half of the 12th c. built of black alabaster and decorated with a recumbent statue, wearing priest's robes, alb, chasuble and stole with a beautifully worked cross on his chest bearing the decoration of numbers and plants. Nowadays, the Pilgrims' Way as it passes through la Rioja makes a diversion to the monastery of Yuso where the saint's remains are kept.

The origin of the construction of this monastery is reflected in a legend which tells how king García of Nájera, ordered the transfer of the remains of San Millán which were then in Suso to the Monastery of Santa María La Real de Nájera. The oxen which were pulling the cart stopped in the valley as if the Saint's remains did not want to abandon it, so the current monastery of Yuso was constructed on the spot. A 10th-11th century Romanesque monastery of which today no trace remains, over which the current monastery of Yuso was constructed between the 16th and 18th centuries by the Benedictine abbots.

The Benedictine monks moved to the monastery in the 10th century. One of the most notable abbots was Domingo, born in the Riojan village of Cañas, better known as Santo Domingo de Silos.

The main door to the monastery was built in 1661 and depicts the relief of San Millán “Moorslayer” since, according to tradition, he fought against Islam together with Santiago (St James) in the battle of Simancas. The vestibule was made later, in 1689, and together these lead into the Kings' Chamber, called thus because of the four large canvases of kings who supported the monastery.

The low cloister was begun in 1549 and although its vaults are gothic in conception, it is Renaissance. Outside it is classicist in style and it houses twenty-four paintings by José Vexes, whose main theme is the life of San Millán, written by San Braulio, Archbishop of Zaragoza.

The vestry is one of the loveliest in Spain, the former chapter house started to be used as such around 1693. The 18th century frescos on the ceiling conserve all the rich original colour in spite of never having been restored. The walnut drawers and chests, over which hang twenty-four oils painted on copper in the Baroque style originating in Flanders, Madrid and Italy.

The monastery church was the first part of the whole to be completed, begun in 1504 and finished thirty-six years later. It is catalogued as being "decadent gothic". The grandiose altarpiece of the main altar has a canvas by Fray Juan Ricci, of the school of El Greco, depicting San Millán on horseback and the battle of Hacinas . The extraordinary wrought ironwork of Sebastián de Medina from 1676 complete the artistic whole of the main chapel.

The lower choirstalls were decorated by a Flemish sculptor around 1640, the retro choir in French Rococo style is decorated with busts depicting the disciples of San Millán, with the plateresque pulpit with reliefs of the writers of the gospels and symbols of the passion. The upper choir, somewhat later than the lower one, is supported on an arch with sixteen medallions, from the first half of the 17th c.

The shelves for the monastery songbooks hold twenty-five volumes copied between 1729 and 1731. The monastery archives and library are of great value to researchers and is considered to be among the best in Spain. Here the cartularies and three hundred original volumes are conserved.

In the exhibition room the replicas of the Romanesque ivories on the caskets are outstanding: reliquaries of San Millán from the 11th c. and of San Felices from the 12th c.

It was built by Benedictine monks, who stayed there until the disendowment and expulsion of the 19th c. Nowadays the Augustine friars are responsible for keeping alive the spirit of the monastery.