Abbey of Santa María de Alaón

[1] Monastic life continued until the Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal in 1836, when the monastery was abandoned, and the abbey was relegated to the status of parish church of the town of Sopeira.

A hundred years later, during the Spanish Civil War, a fire destroyed part of the monastic buildings and what little content had remained.

Modern stucco was partially removed from the vaulted ceiling area leading down to the crypt and 2 sets of inscriptions were found - the first set of writing dedicating the church to Saints Peter and Paul, and a second inscription in red visigothic characters dedicating the small sanctuary to Saints Nereus and Achilleus.

[2] The abbey's cartulary, (also known as the Fragmentum historicum ex cartulario Alaonis),[3] contains various documents related to its foundation, privileges and ecclesiastical rights amongst which are a record of various genealogies and Medieval events chronicling the years 806 and 814 through 1245.

Indeed, recent archaeological excavations have found a tombstone on the northern wall of the temple memorializing the venerable Count Unifred, "Venerabilis Unifredus Comes".