The monastic community founded by St Millán in the mid-6th century became a place of pilgrimage. A fine Romanesque church built in honour of the holy man still stands at the site of Suso. It was here that the first literature was produced in Castilian, from which one of the most widely spoken languages in the world today is derived.
Suso Monastery, The cenobium, which is the monastery’s nucleus, is Visigoth, built in the year 550, making it one of Spain’s oldest. San Millán did his lent penance in its caves. In the 10th century it was inhabited by Mozarab monks and the horseshoe arch in its main doorway and the square chapels inside date from this period. The building has two naves, separated by horseshoe arches. In 964 the Iberian Peninsula’s first encyclopaedic dictionary was written here: the Emilianense 46 Codex. In the 13th century, Gonzalo de Berceo wrote the first poems in the Spanish language. His remains lie in the Romanesque chapel
Yuso Monastery, In the early 16th century the community was housed in the fine new monastery of Yuso, below the older complex; it is still a thriving community today.
