The Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liebana is a Franciscan monastery located a short drive(or 45 minute walk) outside of Potes. The mountain-side setting is cool, although the Building is a bit boxy and mildly interesting(at least by ornate Spanish Catholic standards). However, this place has 2 very significant claims to fame. The first is that it was here that the Abbot Beatus de Liebana wrote his apocalyptic commentaries on the Book of St. John. An original copy of this Work is kept at the Monastery, but well out of public view. However, we saw nice prints around the cloister and some good reproductions in the Gift Shop. There’s also a very well done exhibit about this Book and similar works at what I’ll call the Potes Tower Museum. The other item of interest is kept in the side Chapel off the Main Church. It is nothing less than the the largest fragment of the True Cross in existence. It’s a hefty chunk of of cypress wood, that includes one of the nail holes, and is embedded in an ornate silver Gothic crucifix. I got to see it just before one of the good Monk’s informed me(in perfectly understood Spanish) that the Chapel was closing. Next to the monastery are the Cueva Santa(Romanesque style), the ruins of the Sanctuary of Santa Catalina, the Chapel of St. John of the village(XVI century) and the Ermita de San Miguel(XIII century). Gayle and I later drove up to San Miguel and took in the sights(including a small airplane at the Mountain distance that looked like it was trying to land). This was one last inspirational stop, before we headed back to Santillana del Mar for the day.
