Sahagun

Sunday, September 19, 2021: This town is a little bigger than the previous few with a population of 2800. It contains some of the earliest examples of Mudejar architecture.

The city thrived with a diverse population including Muslims and Jews. Sahagun’s historic architecture illustrates the Romanesque-Mudejar style, which incorporated Islamic decorative motifs and was built primarily out of brick rather than stone.

*We arrived early and found a nice coffee shop with good WIFI.*

We stayed at a monastery called Santa Cruz. Brother Ivan from England welcomed us and the hospitalaro, Alexandro, showed us around and made us feel welcome.

*Alejandro was very welcoming, helpful and a good English speaker.*

*The Santa Cruz monastery in Sahagun is run by Marist Fathers and Brothers, a congregation born in France in 1836.*

This is the little chapel at the Monastery where they had a non-denominational pilgrim’s mass.

This is definitely a sign of Covid times … the holy water font is empty and it has a bottle of hand sanitizer in it.

We were so fortunate … we had our own room.

,,, with a private bathroom and we were on the first floor. The cost was “donativo”.

The arch of San Benito was originally the door to the church but now it is a main thoroughfare into the town. It was part of the Royal Monastery of San Benito which was destroyed in 1835.