These magical monasteries of Europe were born to help us detach from the world and, centuries later, they continue offering exactly the same. It doesn’t matter if they rise above a canyon carved by a river, among vineyards that change color with the seasons, or in the middle of a forest that seems inhabited by druids, all were built in truly beautiful places, although those who chose them sought something very different from tourism: contemplation, water, fertile lands, and a nature capable of accompanying the contemplative life.
Sleeping within their walls is, of course, a privilege, but staying only with the magic of a cloister or an old cell transformed into a room would be missing half the experience. Many of these monastic complexes are the gateway to some of the most captivating landscapes of the Old Continent.
Monastery of Santo Estevo (Spain)
The Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil monastery rises among chestnut trees and oaks with the calm of someone who has watched the same landscape for nearly a thousand years. Its three cloisters, built in different periods, tell the story of one of Galicia’s great monastic centers and today houses one of Spain’s most spectacular paradores. Sleeping here means sleeping among Romanesque capitals, Renaissance galleries, and granite walls that keep the echo of the old Benedictine monks intact.
Just beyond the Santo Estevo Parador, you realize that the true jewel lies a few meters further. The Ribeira Sacra unfurls an almost impossible landscape, where the Sil River has carved canyons over 500 meters deep and the vineyards defy gravity clinging to dizzying slopes.
