Monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbona

In addition to the community of Cérvoles, Ramon de Vallbona also promoted the communities of Poboleda and Vallbona. There is news of the latter community from 1154, when mention is made of the hermits of Santa Maria de Vallbona, a place that benefited from the protection of Ramon de Cervera, lord of these lands. In 1164, the latter provided the hermits with the castle of Colobrers, located to the southeast of Vallbona, where another settlement was established, so that in this sector he maintained various establishments related to each other. These were small hermit communities of a mixed type, in which there were both men and women.

The development of the Cistercian Order encouraged donations to Vallbona and its growth. In 1176, upon the death of Ramon de Vallbona, the establishment was reorganised and the nuns of Colobrers moved to Vallbona that same year with the abbess Oria at its head, where they began to build the monastery that has survived to the present day. The monks moved to Poboleda. The development of the Cistercian monastery went very fast thanks to the support received from the monarchy and the nobility. In 1198 Pope Innocent III granted it several privileges, among them that of immunity, and at the same time confirmed its properties, the same pope confirmed it again in a bull dated 1201.

The privileges enjoyed by the monastery were the basis of a lordship that turned Vallbona, with the abbess at its head, into a centre of political, legal and economic life that covered a large territory. Thanks to this situation, other religious establishments depended on this monastic centre to a greater or lesser extent: Santa Maria de la Bovera (later Vallsanta) in Guimerà, Pedregal in Tàrrega, Sant Hilari de Lleida, Santa Maria de Bonrepòs and La Saïdia in Valencia. At its peak it had a community of one hundred and fifty nuns.

From the 17th century onwards, the monastery began to decline and the consequent loss of property, income and power, and the conditions of enclosure, which until then had been very mild, were tightened, with the nuns having rooms and enclosures for their own use. In the 19th century, several exclaustrations took place, some due to the Peninsular War (1809 and 1810) and the other in 1835. This was, exceptionally, of short duration and the nuns were able to return to the monastery six months later. Monastic life continues today despite some adverse events, such as the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, when it suffered the greatest destruction in its history.