Monastery Of San Pedro De Eslonza

Leon - San Juan y San Pedro de Renueva 03

The Monastery of San Pedro de Eslonza is a former

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monastery in

Gradefes Gradefes () is a municipality located in the province of León León (, , ; ; ) is a province of northwestern Spain in the northern part of the Region of León and in the northwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. Abou ...

, in the

province of León León (, , ; ; ) is a province of northwestern Spain in the northern part of the Region of León and in the northwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. About one quarter of its population of 463,746 (2018) lives in the cap ...

, central

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. Today in ruins, it was once the second most important monastery in the province, after the monastery of San Benito in

Sahagún Sahagún () is a town and municipality of Spain, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León and the province of León. It is the main populated place in the Leonese part of the Tierra de Campos natural region. Sahagún contains some ...

. It was founded in 912 by King

García I of León García I (c. 871 – 19 January 914) was the King of León from 910 until his death and eldest of three succeeding sons of Alfonso III the Great by his wife Jimena. García took part in the government alongside his father until 909. In that ye ...

, but was destroyed by the Moorish ruler

Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir Abu ʿĀmir Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Abi ʿĀmir al-Maʿafiri ( ar, أبو عامر محمد بن عبد الله بن أبي عامر المعافري), nicknamed al-Manṣūr ( ar, المنصور, "the Victorious"), which is often Latiniz ...

in 988; it was therefore rebuilt in 1099 by the

Urraca of Zamora Urraca of Zamora (1033/34 – 1101/03) was a Leonese ''infanta'', one of the five children of Ferdinand I the Great, who received the city of Zamora as her inheritance and exercised palatine authority in it. Her story was romanticized in the ' ...

, daughter of

Ferdinand I of León and Castile Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

. In 1109 she became queen of Galicia, León and Castile, and gave consistent donations to the monastery. The edifice was in ruinous state in the 16th century, and was therefore restored with, among the other interventions, three new Renaissance portals. The main façade was added in Baroque style: its niches once housed statues of saints, now disappeared. The monastery's prosperity suffered a severe blow in 1836 with the Ecclesiastical Confiscation of Mendizábal, by which it was sold and its artistic heritage split between numerous buyers. Its decline continued despite the fact that, in 1931, it was declared a national monument. In the period between 1944 and 1970 bishop Luis Almarcha Hernández moved its portals to the church of San Juan y San Pedro de Renueva, at León, saving them from destruction. {{Authority control San Pedro de Eslonza Pedro de Eslonza Religious organizations established in the 10th century