Simat

You could easily pass by this village never knowing that there is a monastery here open to visitors and you would miss one of the jewels of the area.

King James II visited the valley of Simat and exclaimed that this was a “Vall Digna” (translated literally as “a worthy valley”) for a monastery so the land was given to the Cistercian order in 1298 to build a monastery.

With the expropriation of church property the monks were evicted and the monastery was sold into private ownership, many of the buildings were destroyed and the blocks sold for other buildings.

In 1991 the Valencian Government began a restoration program on the monastery, evidence of which you can see on the ceiling of the Iglesia de Santa Maria.

They are in the process of creating an information centre and currently hold exhibitions in the Iglesia of the reform work to date.

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