 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||
 |
|
||||||||
MONASTERIO DE SANTO TORIBIO. Exterior de la iglesia
Within a radious of 800 m. round the monastery, there's a group of hermitages and places of retirement and pray used by the monks.
La Cueva Santa ("Holy Cave") is a Pre-Romanic building of the Asturian type, built around 900, sited on the northern slope of the Viorna Mountain. The ground floor, excavated in the stone, would be the cell and the upper floor of a chapel.
According to tradition this place was the monk Sto Toribio's retreat, who "wishing to deal with the enemy on his own, climbed to the top of the mountain and in a very hidden spot carved a little hermitage where, through abstinence, discipline, continous praying and tears he reached such perfection that God granted him unique favours and angels used to come down to talk to him and keep him company. And it was in this place near his hermitage, where the angels appeared, that he built another hermitage which today they call of the Angels". The remains of the latter can be foun nearby.
This hermitage is perched on the upper point of a hillock and has an astonishing view over Potes and the Deva valley. Only the apse or Gothic upper end from the XIII century has been preserved. The bullrush has been added recently.
Its remnants come out from the hilllock that shelters the monastery. Its bullrush as well as the Gothic walls of the presbytery have been preserved.
To be found near the road before you reach Santo Toribio, this hermitage, which belonged to the monastery farm, is a simple rectangular building that seems to have been reconstructed in the XVI century.
Todo el material de esta página está tomado del folleto "MONASTERIO DE SANTO TORIBIO DE LIÉBANA", editado por el MVSEO DIOCESANO de la DIÓCESIS DE SANTANDER.