Monastery of Santa María la Real de Fitero

At an unspecified date, in the middle of the 12th century, this same abbot moved the monastery from the site of the original settlement to the definitive site of Fitero, also known as Castellón. It is believed that the first monastery was Benedictine and that it was later linked to the Cistercian Order. Despite the different opinions, the fact is that it is not until 1147 (perhaps as early as 1145) that this house is unmistakably referred to as Cistercian, dependent on Escaladieu Abbey (Hautes-Pyrénées, France). That abbot Raymond organised an important militia at the request of Sancho III of Castile in order to defend the place of Calatrava (Ciudad Real). In 1158, once this objective had been achieved, the king gave it to Fitero, where the military order of Calatrava would later develop.

Until 1373 Fitero was part of the kingdom of Castile, but at that time it was incorporated into the kingdom of Navarre. During the first half of the 16th century, the population of Fitero grew up in the shadow of the monastery, at a time when the house was going through a period of decadence. Later, the community was reformed and joined the congregation of Aragon, despite the pretensions of the congregation of Castile. The monastery maintained its activity, with greater or lesser vitality until 1835, when the monks abandoned it due to the disentailment. Before that, they had suffered the temporary exclaustrations of the Peninsular War and the Liberal Triennium. From then on, the church became a parish church and thanks to this it has been preserved, as well as the cloister and the chapterhouse, in addition to the convent buildings that were erected in modern times.