THE MONASTERY

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Interior de la iglesia monástica

In the heart of the area of Liébana, about 2 kms southbound from the main town called Potes and half-hidden among the orographical folds of La Viorna Mountain, at the foothills of The Picos de Europa (range of mountains), is the place where Toribio (530-540) and some Benedictine monks chose to build thier home and seclude themselves from the world at the beginning of the Christian Era.
After the Muslim invassion in the year 711 and the quick conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the Christians who were defending the Spanish-Visig. state withdrew towards the northern mountains and there they resisted successfully in many battles such as those in Covadonga (722) or Cosgaya, victories which made them feel confident about heir stregth and marked the beginning of the Reconquest. The Asturian Kingdom was then established with Don Pelayo as their king, succeeded by Alfonso I, son of Don Pelayo's fellow mate the Duke Pedro of Cantabria an married to Don Pelayo's daughter Ermesinda.
This king of Cantabrian blood organized and peopled the Valley of Liébana with Christians from the northern part of the Meseta in order to create a strategical empty space which could act as a barrier against the Muslims along the River Duero Valley. Among the people who came there were many monks that settled down in the region, raising several monasteries such as San Martín de Turieno, which would eventually turn into Santo Toribio de Liébana.
It is tho this place where the rests of the Bishop Toribio of Astorga and the relic of the Lignum Crucis was brought, quite possibly towards the half of the 8th century. According to tradition the bishop had brought the relic from Jerusalem to be preserved within the Christian territory in a safe place such as this monastery.