Real Monasterio de San Juan de la Peña

Santa Cruz de la Serós (près de Jaca)

According to the foundation legend, the nobleman Voto, pursuing a stag while hunting, narrowly escaped a fatal fall and discovered in a cave a hermitage dedicated to Saint John the Baptist — a traditional tale with no historical attestation. The documented facts show that a centre of hermits existed from the 10th century and that the monastery became, in the 11th–12th centuries, one of the religious and political pillars of the nascent kingdom of Aragon, housing the Panteón Real of its first three kings. Symbolic cradle of the kingdom of Aragon, it is a major stage on the Camino Catalán, which joins the Aragonese Way here near Santa Cilia de Jaca before the Somport pass.

Getting there : Admission charge (Romanesque lower monastery and neoclassical upper monastery)

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound