Cistercian Monastery of Barria

The monastery of Santa María was built by the Cistercian order in the 13th century and it is set in the southern side of the mountains that mark the boundaries with Oñati. Nowadays, it is one of Alava's youth hostels and its interior has been fitted out to lodge youth groups. It seems to be one of the first monasteries founded by this religious order, which preserves the bull by Pope Gregorio IX issued in 1232, where the monastery's antiquity is confirmed. Up to the 19th century, it had its own parish church. Worth seeing are the abbesses' cementery and the two-storey cloister, with 6 arches on its side and its upper gallery closed with rectangular windows. The convent has an extraordinary interest from the archeologic and anthropologic point of view, because of the remains it sits on. However, there are no traces of the first medieval construction that stood here, being the oldest vestiges from the 15th century.The complex is divided into two parts: the church of Nuestra Señora de Barría and the Cistercian monastery. The church is a temple from the late 15th century and has a rectangular plan.