Santa María de Irache Monastery

Near the town of Estella, the Benedictine monastery, of Mozarab origin, prosperous in the 11th century, after García de Nájera converted it into a Pilgrim's hospital given its proximity to the Road to Santiago de Compostela.In the 12th century the church with a Romanesque sanctuary and Cistercian body was built and thereafter the Plateresque cloister in the 16th century, according to Martín de Oyarzábal's design. In 1615 the University was founded, then later a blood hospital and religious school.Today it is in the process of being turned into the Ethnology of Navarre.