French troops appropriated monastery stores during the Peninsular War

In 1148 the Cistercian Valbuena Abbey founded a daughter house in a small former hermitage in Quintanajuar. In 1171 this new community received the ancient monastery of Rioseco as a gift. The Cistercians moved to the Valle de Manzanedo at the beginning of the 13th century, and probably in 1204, to occupy the old monastery of Rioseco. By the 14th century, Rioseco had become one of the most powerful economies among the Castilian Cistercians.

However, from the middle of the 15th century, the abbey experienced years of penury and crisis. During the Peninsular War (1808–1814), French troops stationed in Medina de Pomar appropriated a large part of the monastery's stores. From 1809 until 29 June 1814 the monks were dispossessed.

Nor after their return did they stay very long, for on 29 October 1820, during the Trienio Liberal, the commissars of the revolutionary government took possession of the monastery. At a public auction held in Villarcayo, most of the community's goods were sold. The monastery itself however found no buyer, and thereafter stood abandoned.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons