Monastery of Piedra

Monastery of Piedra is a Cistercian monastery in Nuévalos, Spain, now serving as a tourist site with a natural park. The grounds stretch along the Piedra River and combine monastery buildings with waterfalls, caves, and wooded paths running through a sheltered valley section.

King Alfonso II of Aragon founded the abbey in 1194 and handed it to the Cistercian order, which lived here until confiscation in 1835. The closure came during the general secularization of religious properties in Spain, after which private owners turned the grounds into an accessible park.

The name comes from the Piedra River, whose cold water flows through the grounds and once served the monks in their daily work. Visitors today can enter the former kitchen area, where the brothers learned techniques for processing cocoa and spread them across the Iberian Peninsula.

The park opens daily throughout the year and offers guided tours of the monastery rooms as well as self-guided routes through the natural grounds. The paths follow the river course and lead to several viewpoints, with sturdy footwear recommended because of the damp steps and bridges.

The grounds hold Spain's first fish farm, which has operated since 1867 and supplies native trout to regional waters. The breeding facility uses the cold river water and is considered a forerunner of modern aquaculture on the Iberian Peninsula.

Location: Nuévalos

Inception: 1194

Architectural style: Cistercian architecture

GPS coordinates: 41.19333,-1.78250

Latest update: December 4, 2025 23:05