Santa María de Sandoval was a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

monastery of the

Cistercian Order The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint B ...

in Spain from the 12th century until 1835. The oldest part was built in the Romanesque style, but later additions are

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

. Today its ruins lie in Villaverde de Sandoval. It has been listed as a '' monumento histórico-artístico'' (historical artistic monument) since 3 June 1931. In 2015, the Spanish government listed it as an "associated element" of the ''

Camino de Santiago The Camino de Santiago ( la, Peregrinatio Compostellana, "Pilgrimage of Compostela"; gl, O Camiño de Santiago), known in English as the Way of St James, is a network of pilgrims' ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint ...

'', a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

.Retrospective Inventory – Associated Components
(2014), Routes of Santiago de Compostela: Camino Francés and Routes of Northern Spain. In 1142, the Emperor

Alfonso VII Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

gave a piece of land to his majordomo, Count

Ponce de Minerva Ponce de Minerva (1114/1115 – 27 July 1175) was a nobleman, courtier, governor, and general serving, at different times, the kingdoms of León and Castile. Originally from Occitania, he came as a young man to León (1127), where he was raised ...

. Known as ''Sotnoval'' or ''Saltus Novalis'', it lay near the confluence of the rivers Porma and

Esla Esla or ESLA can refer to: * Əşlə, Azerbaijani municipality * Esla river The Esla is a river in the provinces of León and Zamora in the northwest of Spain. It is a tributary of the Duero River that starts in the Cantabrian Mountains and i ...

a few miles outside the city of León. In 1167, Ponce and his wife, Estefanía Ramírez, with the consent of their children, Ramiro, María and Sancha, gave the land to Abbot Diego Martínez of the monastery of Santa María de la Santa Espina for the construction of a new Cistercian monastery. Monastic life began at Sandoval in 1171 with twelve monks from La Santa Espina under Abbot Diego. Although Sandoval began as a daughter house of La Santa Espina, in a short time it would equal its spiritual parent in importance. Among Sandoval's early patrons was

Urraca Urraca (also spelled ''Hurraca'', ''Urracha'' and ''Hurracka'' in medieval Latin) is a female given name, first name. In Spanish language, Spanish, the name means magpie, derived perhaps from Latin ''furax'', meaning "thievish", in reference to the ...

, daughter of Alfonso VII, whose anniversary mass was celebrated there on 25 June. The monastery received not only real property in donations, such as ''

dehesa A ''dehesa'' () is a multifunctional, agrosylvopastoral system (a type of agroforestry) and cultural landscape of southern and central Spain and southern Portugal; in Portugal, it is known as a ''montado''. Its name comes from the Latin 'defens ...

s'', but also

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...

rights. In 1222, the monastery received land and ''dehesas'' from King Ferdinand III. It also had a small daughter house of its own at Valdellán. After 1487, Sandoval became part of the Congregation of Castile, a group of reformed Spanish Cistercian houses founded by Martín de Vargas. In 1835, the monks abandoned the monastery during the first confiscation of Mendizábal. It continued to be used as a parish church and services are still occasionally celebrated there. File:Villaverde de Sandoval - Monasterio de Santa Maria 20.jpg, Exterior File:Villaverde de Sandoval - Monasterio de Santa Maria 22.jpg, Cloisters File:Villaverde de Sandoval - Monasterio de Santa Maria 07.jpg, Portal

References

{{Coord, 42.4995, -5.4593, type:landmark_region:ES, display=title Cistercian monasteries in Spain 1171 establishments in Europe 1835 disestablishments in Spain Camino de Santiago