Santa María de Sandoval was a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

monastery of the

Cistercian Order The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, 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 Benedict, as well as the contri ...

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

Villaverde de Sandoval Mansilla Mayor () is a municipality located in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2010 census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating ...

. 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 (, ; ), or the Way of St. James in English, is a network of pilgrims' ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the apostle James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tra ...

'', a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

.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 Kingdom of León, León and Kingdom of Castile, Castile. Originally from Occitania, he came as a young man t ...

. Known as ''Sotnoval'' or ''Saltus Novalis'', it lay near the confluence of the rivers Porma and Esla 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 Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Christma ...

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, 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 ''defe ...

s'', but also

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

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:VsS001 fulgacian.jpg, Central

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

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