Monastery of Irache

Santa María la Real de Irache (also Hyrache, or, in Basque, Iratxe) is a former Benedictine monastery located in the town of Ayegui, Navarre, Spain.

Adjacent to the monastery is a winery called Bodegas Irache, which continues a tradition of viticulture which dates from monastic times.

[citation needed] Irache bore also witness to a decisive conspirational meeting on 15 June 1936 between the Carlist leader Manuel Fal Conde and right-wing General Mola appointed to Pamplona in 1936.

The initially unlikely alliance took hold and provided the springboard for the successful military rebellion against the Spanish Republic that shook Navarre and Spain altogether.

[citation needed] In the sixteenth century the monastery set up a college which became Navarre's first university, the Universidad Real de Hyrache.