Santa Cruz de la Seros Postcard

Santa Cruz de la Serós, Aragon, Spain The picturesque little village is called also "las Sorores" because of the former female monastery, which no longer exists. The 11th Latin cross plan church is based on the model of Jaca’s cathedral. The solid, 12th century tower has several chambers. The largest one is situated above the crossing. The tower is only accesible from the interior of the church and served as refuge for the nuns and guarded the monastery's treasaure. The actual church was founded by Ramiro I, king of Aragon (by the way, he is considered king of Aragon, but in his official documents he never used this title, he called himself 'Ramiro, son of king Sancho'). Ramiro entrusted the church to his daughter, Urraca. Sancho tried to substitute the visigoth rite and introduce the Benedictine reform. In 1070 the vidow of Emerengol III, Count of Urgel, Doña Sancha became the abess of the monastery until her death (1095). This period was the golden age of the temple and the monastery. Doña Sancha was another daughter of Ramiro and had an extraordenary influence in the Aragonian court. She convinced the king (her brother), Sancho Ramirez, to continue with the Benedictine reform and to create the ideological and infrastuctural bases of the St. James way (Camino de Santiago).