San Pedro de Arlanza: The Cradle of Castile founded in 912

The monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza is a ruined Benedictine monastery in north central Spain, located in the valley of the river Arlanza in Hortigüela, Burgos. Founded in 912, it has been called the cradle of Castile. It was abandoned in 1841 during the confiscations of Juan Álvarez Mendizábal's government, when ecclesiastical properties were redistributed.

Purported founding documents preserved in a twelfth-century cartulary were issued by Count Fernán González and his wife, Sancha of Navarre, and by Muniadona Ramírez and Ramiro González, with Count Gonzalo Téllez and his wife, Flamula. While some documents may be forgeries, the charter of Gonzalo Téllez is more likely to be based on reality, since Gonzalo is known to have been active in 912. Fernán González and Sancha were buried at San Pedro until the dispersal of the monastic community in 1841.

The present ruins of the church date from a building begun in 1080. It had three naves and three semicircular apses in the Romanesque style. Later modifications in the Gothic style transformed the outward appearance, but some of its eleventh-century capitals have been preserved. Among the ruins the three apses still stand, as do the tower, part of the cloisters and the chapter house, and the double-aperture and the tympanum above the main façade.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons