Front of Monestir de Sant Pere de les Puelles

©Esme Fox/Lonely Planet

Monestir de Sant Pere de les Puelles


It was around this much-remodelled Romanesque church, founded in 945, that settlement began in La Ribera. In 985 a Muslim force under Al-Mansur largely destroyed what was then a Benedictine convent, killing or capturing the nuns. Now overlooking a leafy square, the church was rebuilt in early medieval times and in the 20th century. The pre-Romanesque Greek-cross floor plan survives, as do some Corinthian columns (beneath the 12th-century dome) and a much-damaged Renaissance vault leading into a side chapel.


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