Aragon Guide

The Sigena Monastery is a National Monument located in Villanueva de Sigena (Huesca). It can be partially visited with a guide. Information about admission times is available in the monastery. This solemn and huge female monastery was founded by Queen Dona Sancha, the wife of Alfonso II, King of Aragon. It was the most important of its time in Aragon.

It began to be built by the end of the 12th century, and it belonged to the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. Apart from the nuns there was a group of monks in charge of the worship and of administration tasks, though they were under the prioress’ authority. The monastery is a Romanesque work, with some parts belonging to the transitional period to the Gothic style. It has a church, a cloister and the rooms, together with the Priory Palace. The church has a Latin cross plan with one nave, crossing with a surprising dome and apse with oven vaults. In the outside some decorations on the windows and the impressive doorway with fourteen archivolts are outstanding.

The chapter house ­ruined during the Civil War, as well as the rest of the monastery- was decorated with the finest frescoes of the Spanish late Romanesque (around 1220) and covered by a magnificent Mudejar coffered ceiling, destroyed by fire. The remains of these paintings are kept in the Art Museum of Catalonia, in Barcelona.

After years of neglect, the monastic life has recently been resumed in the monastery. Near Sigena, you can visit Sena, with numerous archaeological sites, and Sarinena, with a lake where migratory birds nest. 9 km. to the south, near Lanaja, is the Carthusian monastery of Nuestra Senora de las Fuentes, monumental Baroque building from 1731, decorated with mural paintings by Bayeu.