Mercedarian monastery of San Juan de Poio was built in the 17th century and reflects the taste for combining Classicist and Baroque styles. The first document of the monastery on the site is however much older, dating from 942 AD.
Inside, there is a splendid retable from the 18th century, in Churrigueresque style, and the tomb of St. Trahamunda is in the left-hand aisle (much venerated in the district). The procession cloister (16th century) is also noteworthy, with a Baroque fountain and an original stairway. Also worth mentioning are the library, the museum of mosaics, the Escola de Canteiros or the centre for the Summer University courses. The monastery is currently devoted to tourist accommodation, governed by the nuns.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).