Monastery of Santa Maria de Lillet

The restoration of this monastery, declared an Asset of National Cultural Interest, has enabled some parts to be secured and elements to be added making it fit for visitors.

This monastery´s ruins are located in a solitary semi-raised place and from where the valley of the Arija river is espied. The church is located at the southern end of the compound, and has a one-nave structure, with an ample transept in which the central apse is diposes, which is preceded by an ample presbytery and the walled up subsidiary apse in the nave. On the transept there are two chapels excavated in the wall.

Both the nave and the transept were covered with a barrel vault reinforced in the nave with subarches, closely connected to the classicist ornamentation with which the church was decorated. On the western façade, in ruins, we can still see traces of a frieze with Lombard arcuations which were once part of the frontispiece.

The monastic living quarters are located in the northern part of the church and are arranged around the galleries of a small square cloister. The building has a series of rectangular rooms, arranged around the cloister's galleries, with many doors, arcades and windows of several periods.

Virtual tour