The Blasted Heath and the Church Expansive

 We are definitely out on the blasted heath - a thing which Spain does rather specialist in.  We are going to drop from 212m above sea level. Down 90m into the Ebro Valley again.





As we approach to Ebro’s bridge we are offered a left turn for the Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Rueda.  It is always odd for a Brit to find a monastery which isn’t a pile of stones, with a gift shop and an artist getting all Turneresque over it.  What can you do when a country can’t get behind the idea of the Reformation.




TIn 1152 this expanding order the Cistercians were  a product of the reforming church which was getting all muscular and hardcore in the 10th century received land in Burjazud, north of Zaragoza), but the monastery was not built there. This land was augmented by a grant from King Alfonso II of Aragon in 1182 to include castle and village of Escatrón, about 50 km south-east downstream from Zaragoza. After two more decades the Real Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Rueda was founded on the banks of the Ebro River, next to an island and a salt lagoon.



The first church was consecrated before the year 1238. A lavatorium was constructed in the 13th century. The cloisters were designed using a barrel vaulted stonework construction. By the beginning of the early 15th century the old Abbot's Palace, the farm support buildings and laity area were complete. The monks built a dam on the Ebro and created a massive waterwheel or "rueda". The waterwheel diverted some of the river flow to an aqueduct to distribute to water round the monastery. The monks got busy and  developed the salt mule track, saltwork equipment, a fluvial pier, a fluvial mule barge transport, an oil mill, a flour mill, a stone irrigation ditch with a waterwheel, a vineyard, a wine cellar, and an orchard surrounded by a sentry-boxed wall.



As a result of the Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal of 1837 and 1838, lands and buildings belonging to the monastery were sold and the site was used for farming, with considerable, almost Protestant, levels of destruction taking place. In 1990 the property came under governmental control when it was bought by the Diputacion General de Aragón. Thereafter a lot of cash was thrown at the place and considerable conservation and restoration occurred. The present including a three-star hotel and conference rooms.



We end the day by a 50kph warning and big turn around, made to enable lorries to head down to the CTCC Escatron Repsol EYG.  Power Stations are rarely loved.  This one has three reviews, a 5, a 4 and a 1.  Two months ago the one was made by Richi.  ‘One of the worst sites to download. They demand so much that in the end they will not have transportation’  David opined  four years ago ‘One of the projects lost due to the nuclear moratorium.’  Jesus just gave five stars and left without commenting a year ago.




Tomorrow we go to Escatron.










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