Irache

Irache is a monastery complex in the municipality of Ayegui, Navarra, situated at the base of the Montejurra ridge on the Camino Frances. The Monastery of Santa María la Real de Irache is one of the oldest in Navarra, with a documented history from the ninth century and its Romanesque church constructed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

The monastery was a significant pilgrims hospice throughout the medieval period, operating one of the major hospitaller establishments of the Navarrese Camino. The Romanesque church has a characteristic Navarrese Romanesque apse and a later Plateresque facade. The complex also housed a university from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

The complex stands in a transitional landscape between the Estella basin and the open plain approaching Los Arcos, with the Montejurra hills rising to the south as a backdrop.