San Millan Yuso and Suso

Suso, the upper monastery, grew from caves where the hermit Millan lived in the sixth century, and its church incorporates Visigothic and Mozarabic work with horseshoe arches. In its scriptorium, sometime around the tenth or eleventh century, a monk annotated a Latin codex with glosses explaining difficult words in the vernacular, the Glosas Emilianenses, which include the earliest surviving written passages in a Romance language recognisable as Spanish and two lines in Basque; the manuscript is now in Madrid. Yuso, the lower monastery, was built from the sixteenth century on a far larger scale in Renaissance and baroque style, and holds ivory-plated reliquary chests and a library. UNESCO listed both in 1997. Access to Suso is by shuttle with booking.

What you actually see

• Suso - a cave-rooted church with Visigothic and Mozarabic arches.
• The Glosas site - the scriptorium where the earliest Spanish was written.
• Yuso - a large Renaissance and baroque monastery with a library.
• The ivory reliquaries - carved chests holding the relics of Saint Millan.

When to go

April to June and September to November; both monasteries are guided-only with set times, and Suso requires a booked shuttle from the village with limited daily places. Winter hours are shorter.

Honest expectations

Suso can only be reached by a booked minibus and places are limited, selling out in season. Both visits are guided in Spanish. The original manuscript is in Madrid, not here.

Nearby

The Rioja wine country lies north; Santo Domingo de la Calzada and the Camino are close.