Cañas is a municipality of

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community and provinces of Spain, province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other List of municipalities in La Rioja, cities and towns in the ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It was the birthplace of Saint Dominic of Silos (1000-1073). The abbey of Santa María de San Salvador de Cañas for Cistercian nuns was founded in this town by

Lope Díaz I de Haro Lope Díaz I de Haro (''c''. 1105 – 6 May 1170) was the fourth Lord of Biscay (from at least 1162). He was an important magnate in Castile during the reign of the Emperor Alfonso VII and in the kingdom of his son and grandson. Between 1147 an ...

and his wife Aldonza in 1169 and 1170. Its wealth and power culminated during the 13th century under the abbess

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

, between 1222 and 1262. The nuns benefited from the patronage of the

Haro family The House of Haro was one of the most powerful families of Castile during the Middle Ages, which strongly supported the expansionist policies of Alfonso VI of Castile. As a reward, Íñigo López was named the first Lord of Biscay. In the ea ...

until its extinction in 1322. The community is still active today and retains fragments of its medieval library, particularly a complete Burgundian

antiphonary An antiphonary or antiphonal is one of the liturgical books intended for use (i.e. in the liturgical choir), and originally characterized, as its name implies, by the assignment to it principally of the antiphons used in various parts of the ...

from around 1200, and a Castilian missal from 1267 to 1279.Ghislain Baury, "Une bibliothèque médiévale de moniales cisterciennes en Castille. Cañas et les ''membra disjecta'' de son missel", ''Cîteaux: Commentarii cistercienses'', t. 61, fasc. 2-4 (2010), págs. 141-183.

Politics

Notable people

Dominic of Silos Dominic of Silos () (1000 – 20 December 1073) was a Spanish monk, to whom the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, where he served as the abbot, is dedicated. He is revered as a saint in the Catholic Church. His feast day is 20 December. Life Bor ...

Politics

Notable people

Points of interest

Monastery of Santa María

Parish church of the Assumption

Saint Mary Hermitage

Notes