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The monastery of Santa María de Huerta

The board

Large sign on a metal bracket. The sign shows the immediate surroundings and a photo of the monastery. There are a few more signs nearby with information about the monastery and monks etc.

The infos on one of the boards are:

The monastery of Santa María de Huerta is part of this family of the Cistercian Order founded in the Iberian Peninsula. It is the monastery of Berdous, son of Morimond, son of Cistercians, who founded the community of Huerta in 1148 in Cántavos, moving to its present location in 1162. The work of consolidation of the community and the construction of the monastery is due to the abbot St. Martin de Finojosa (1148). Martín de Finojosa (1135-1213). Until the 15th century there was a progressive growth of the community. In 1498 the community became part of the Congregation of Castile until they were expelled with the Castile until they were expelled with the exclaustration of 1835. During this period it experienced a true “golden century” with a spiritual, intellectual and economic resurgence. In 1930, new monks from the mother abbey of Viaceli of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance brought our monastery back to life. In 1949 and after the difficult vicissitudes of the Civil War, it became an independent priory and in 1965 an abbey.

THE CISTERCIAN MONKS
Within the family of those who follow the Rule of St. Benedict, the Cistercian monks Benedict, the Cistercian monks also arise. The Cistercian Order originated with the foundation of the Novum Monasterium, in 1098, in the solitude of Cistercium. Its founders were St. Robert of Molesmes together with St. Alberic, St. Stephen Harding and several other monks until a group of about twenty-one monks was formed. It is a monastic reform that wants to return to the purity of the Rule of Saint Benedict as opposed to the traditional monasticism, exemplified by Cluny. It appears as a path towards solitude, simplicity and poverty that is concretized in the sustenance by means of manual labor, absolute simplicity in everything and independence from civil power. The Order developed as a true constellation of monasteries that spread throughout Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries. The communities are united by ties of familiarity whose mother house is the Cistercian monastery. The so-called Charter of Charity written by St. Stephen Harding is the document regulating the monasteries. Harding is the document regulating the relations between the monasteries of the Order.
 

The village

Santa María de Huerta is a town and municipality (municipio) with a total of 250 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2022) in the southeast of the province of Soria and the Autonomous Community of Castilla y León in Spain. On a hilltop near the town, there are ruins of partly hewn large stone blocks, whose age and purpose are undetermined; they are associated with a Celtiberian castrum. Romans, Visigoths and even the Moors left no traces and so the real history of this rather remote place probably only began with the founding of the Cistercian monastery in 1144. The monks sometimes used helpers to build and maintain it, who gradually settled in the area around the monastery. In 1886, King Alfonso XIII created the Marquisate of Villa-Huerta (Marquesado de Villa-Huerta) in favor of Antonio María del Valle y Serrano.

Info: Wikipedia + board

Translation: DeepL