A Benedictine abbey stood here as early as the 10C. An important stop on the Compostela pilgrim route (its hospital accommodated pilgrims), it adopted the Cistercian Rule, before becoming a university centre in the 16C under the Benedictines. The church of the Monastery of Irache has a fine, very pure Romanesque-style apse, a cupola supported on squinches, redone in the Renaissance, a coro alto added at the same period, and a fine statue of the Virgin. The cloister (claustro) is Renaissance.