Located to 1:30 Zaragoza car, and 2:45 in Madrid, this park is a very good option to spend a day in direct contact with nature and enjoy the medieval art and the good food.
stone Monastery is located in a place shaped by the river stone, which has been the cause of this spectacular landscape where we can find lots of cascades and waterfalls up to 50 meters.
This was the site chosen by the Cistercian monks to build the monastery back in 1194, and its efforts to work and prayer.
To get there, it'll go to the A2, whether they come from Zaragoza and Madrid.
If we come from Zaragoza take exit 231 to Nuévalos-Monasterio de Piedra.
If we come from Madrid, take exit 204 towards Alhama de Aragón-Monasterio de Piedra.
Before arriving at the monastery, the road offers great views over the lake of the gate.
Once in the monastery, there is a large parking lot where we should not have many problems park, except in very tourist dates.
Then we went to the lockers, because even a natural park, is managed by a private company. Prices (in Spring 2009) are 12.5 € the standard rate, reduced rate € 9 for children and pensioners.
For current price, I leave the link to fares and schedules on the park's own website:
http://www.monasteriopiedra.com/default.aspx?info=000091
This entry includes a visit natural park, to the farm, exhibition and display of birds of prey and the monumental monastery. The entry
also give you a map to guide you through the park, but is well signposted (too big for my taste), and roads in general are well maintained and defined.
Following the path set, the first thing we find is the area known as "El Vergel" , an area with tall trees. Nearby is the "Lake of the Ducks' , a circular pool of shallow water that reflect the surrounding vegetation.
To prevent the amount of people who had, when I was out of the way we set and I was not from this area until the ponytail, but I began to see the various waterfalls that are in this area.
The first, the "Cascade Trinity , it has a very large height, but the water slides over mossy rocks by many frills.
After the first waterfall, we met with several caves in the left and right before taking a small step dug into the wall, we find the viewpoint of the cascade "The capricious" , a spectacular waterfall, and although not the largest in the park, it is of the widest. Typically mojemos us with the spray that is in the vicinity of the base of the waterfall, but it deserves off as close as possible to see the full cascade.
We return back a little and went up the stairs we had seen before.
As we walked up, there are several viewpoints of the "cascade capricious" from which we can see the waterfall from another point of view higher.
Once up, we see an area of \u200b\u200bcalmer waters, which are the same as a few meters further precipitate forming the waterfall we just saw. This is the area known as "The Vadillos ".
We walked and we find the "Waterfall of the ashes" . It is a waterfall with many frills fine ladder is falling along the route. Due to moisture, it forms a green moss on the rock that gives the place a special charm.
From this area, there are good views of the entire monastery, located directly across from the waterfall.
Further down the cascade of ash dropped harder, but with water always stuck to the rock covered with moss.
Once we come back to the garden area, we find the "Cascade Iris" , a rock where the water runs in stages.
Before starting with the most dangerous and spectacular is, we approach the "Mirador Cola de Caballo" , from where we can see the largest waterfall in the park, "Cascada Cola de Caballo ", 50 meters high.
From here, the road enters the rock that is just behind the waterfall ponytail, so the soil wet. There are areas with pools in which the rock slides, and if we add that there are stairs narrow and not very abundant illumination, this is undoubtedly the most dangerous part of the route, but go with a little more care is enough.
As we descend into the "Gruta Iris" , there is spectacular natural vantage points from which to contemplate the impressive waterfall.
Once the bottom, it does not hurt to bring a raincoat or an umbrella, because we sure are going to get wet. The feeling while you are in the cave is like if it was raining, and that from all the dripping ceiling giving the effect that "it's raining sand."
is very important to go to the bottom of the cave, there are over 200 meters, but the view from the bottom is amazing, but beware of the ground, here it sliding, a lot.
To exit the "Gruta Iris" , we walked through a tunnel (which also "rain") to the exit, from where we can see the staircase above the waterfall down "Cola de Caballo" on your right.
From here, we began a walk of about 30 minutes bordering the Lake "mirror" and "Peña del Diablo" , through farms, where we can see the trout at different stages of growth.
To end the visit to the natural park, we went to the exhibition area and exhibition of birds of prey, where you can see hawks, vultures, eagles, owls ...
Before Visit to the monastery, we went to eat, and took the opportunity to try one of the typical local dishes, crumbs grapes. I recommend them very rich.
As I commented at the beginning with the entrance to the natural park, includes guided tour of the monastery, so after waiting for the formation of a group, we began a visit to the Cistercian monastery.
Then I make a brief summary of the history of the monastery, as in the website of the monastery of stone I give you, appears better than I can explain here:
The monastery was a fortress defense of Muslims and the time of the Reconquista was given by Alfonso II of Aragon to the Cistercian Order and moved him twelve monks and an abbot who came from the Abbey de Poblet, Tarragona.
The Monastery was built between 1195 and 1218, with stone taken from the walls and the castle, following the Gothic Cistercian architecture simple and austere. The distribution of the monastery is like that of other Cistercian monasteries to the north, the church and the cloister, the cellars and barns west, south kitchen, refectory and calefactory and east, the chapter house.
monks occupied the monastery until 1835, following the seizure of Mendizabal, and five years later, in 1840, was purchased at auction by Paul Muntadas.
The visit to the monastery includes a visit to the Wine Museum, the Exhibition of the History of Chocolate, the Carriage Museum and the reproduction of Triptych Reliquary of Monasterio de Piedra.
also visit the remains of the church, whose roof is completely collapsed and the tombs of the monks placed in a crypt beneath the church.
As I was interested in listening to the guide, I made the photos later, so here are a few with their corresponding description:
Monastery Cloister
Senate Hall
Chapter House
Monastery Cloister
This is the link to the website Monasterio de Piedra, where you can find prices, schedules, routes of the park, photos ... Updated:
http://www.monasteriopiedra.com/
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