Analíticamente

"Worth a quick visit but its not worth the 6€ online ticket price . Ghat you need to buy before you can take advantage. It looks great on the surface but as you look deeper you can notice neglct everywhere."

"This a must-see monastery if you are interested in the Cistercian architecture, since it allegedly preserves many more genuine Cistercian features than most Spanish Cistercian monasteries such as Veruela, Piedra or Poblet, much more influenced by other styles. Sadly, its state of preservation is far from optimal, because it was left to die, with private propietors not too interested in preserving the original buildings, until the property was transferred to the Government of Aragon, who's made a praise worthy job. Apparently, most of its valuable elements were taken to more thrieving monasteries like Poblet. However, the basic cistercian elements are really apparent in Rueda, specially the church, the cloister and its principal dependences: a well-preserved chapterhouse, a unique octahedral lavatory (compare with that of Veruela for example!), a gorgeous cistercian refectory (I remember having seen a similar one elsewhere in Spain but don't remember the place, Medinaceli perhaps), lower and upper warming houses, the upper next to the dorms, scriptorium with a late polychromy on the ceiling etc. Outdoors you'll find a magnificient cellarium, one of the best that come to my mind. The property around was seemingly humonguous, but the cistercian footprint is definitely clear in the "azud" (a small damp on the Ebro river) which drives part of the flow to a sizeable water wheel and a water mill. The modern wheel doesn't match the medieval style but provides an estimate of the original size and function. The original channel system is amanzingly well preserved, driving the water flow up to the lavatory with underground channels visible in the scriptorium and refectorioum. The cistercian purity is intriguingly broken by uncanny elements such as a gorgeous Mudejar tower and other subtle mudejar details. So strong the influence of mudejar people was in the territory that it was able to breach into the strict cistercian architecture. You must prebook the guided visit -the only way to visit the Monastery, and there's a modern Hotel inside the former Abbey Palace, closed by the time I paid the visit because of the COVID-19 situation. The guide was an interesting guy who clearly held a solid background but was understably able to adapt his talk for the average audience, more interested in intriguing details than in academic aquinas and technicalities (kudos for him ;)"

"Beautiful place a bit out of the way, but we'll worth visiting."

"Wow"

"Beautiful piece of architecture that tells us the earlier history."