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.

History

Christian life has continued here since the time of Saint Emilian, whose hermitage is believed to lie under Suso, the upper monastery of the 6th century, while Yuso, the lower one, was a 16th-century refoundation on a lower site; the change from hermits at Suso to a Benedictine community at Yuso shows, as UNESCO noted, the passage from a solitary to a communal monastic life. The scriptorium produced the second phase of the San Millán Beatus and stayed active under Muslim rule, and it is known for the Glosas Emilianenses, notes on a Latin text holding the first written phrases in Spanish and Basque, though scholars debate whether the Romance words are early Castilian or Navarro-Aragonese. The community came through many troubles, among them a sack by the Black Prince; Suso has stood empty since monastic property was confiscated in the 19th century, a process that began here in the 1820s, Yuso was later reoccupied by Augustinians, and both became a World Heritage Site in December 1997 (Wikipedia, Monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla).

What to look for

• 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.

Good to know

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.

Key facts