Monasterio de Tejeda, Religious sanctuary and hotel in Garaballa, Spain

The Monasterio de Tejeda is a Catholic religious complex in Garaballa, Cuenca, comprising the church that houses the Virgen de Tejeda and the monastery buildings. The current monastery, known as Tejeda la Nueva, was completed on 30 May 1581, when the master Domingo Lozano was paid the final 800 ducats. The complex is now run as a hotel.

A first convent was built near the apparition site around 1207, with help from Bishop Julián of Cuenca; it was ruined by the flood of 1516, and its materials were later reused for a paper mill in 1743. The new monastery was completed on 30 May 1581, when the master Domingo Lozano was paid the final 800 ducats. The Marquises of Moya became patrons in 1504.

The name Tejeda comes from the yew (tejo) on which, by tradition, the image of the Virgen de Tejeda appeared to the shepherd Pedro in 1205. The image is venerated in the church, and the sanctuary was founded by the Trinitarian Order. The Marquis of Moya, Andrés de Cabrera and Beatriz de Bobadilla, took possession of its patronage on 13 November 1504, a ceremony marked by a procession through the cloister while the bell was rung.

The monastery stands in the municipality of Garaballa, in the province of Cuenca, reached by road from the surrounding villages. The old convent site lay in a narrow, shaded spot exposed to floods of the Ojos de Moya river, which is why the sanctuary was rebuilt higher up. The complex now operates as a hotel, so visits depend on its opening as accommodation.

The image of the Virgen de Tejeda, said to have appeared to a shepherd on a yew tree in 1205, is kept in the church. The first convent stood near the river Ojos de Moya and was destroyed by the flood of 1516; its site later became a vegetable garden, and its rubble was used in 1743 to build a paper mill on the opposite bank.