Veruela Abbey

The monastery and church, forming one edifice, were founded in 1146 by Pedro de Atarés, to whom the Blessed Virgin appeared, and whom she directed to discover a hidden statue of herself, which was placed in the monastery chapel, where it is still venerated.

Pedro de Atarés did not live to see the completion of the buildings, whose construction took more than twenty years, but before his death he was enrolled among the Cistercians, who were dwelling in the partly finished abbey.

The most famous abbots of Veruela were Hernando de Aragón (1498–1577) and his successor Lope Marco (died 1560), who, according to his epitaph, raised the monastery "ex terreo marmoreum, ex augusto amplum".

Antonio José Rodríguez [es], styled by Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo as "one of the most remarkable cultivators of medical moral studies" (Ciencia espanola, III, 440), lived at Veruela and died within its walls in 1777.

Gustavo Becquer, the Spanish poet, made Veruela his abode while the religious were prevented from living there.