Qualla: Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos

Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos: Introduction

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Misburg3014, CC BY 3.0. In 1994, a choir of Benedictine monks from a village in the hills south of Burgos released an album called Chant. It peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, was certified triple platinum, and became the best-selling Gregorian chant recording ever made. A reviewer in Gramophone captured the paradox: "The ensemble is not always perfect, but if these are not professional singers, they are, and they sound like, truly professional monks." The Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos had been producing remarkable things for thirteen centuries -- illuminated manuscripts, Romanesque sculpture, liturgical scholarship -- but it took a pop-chart anomaly to make the wider world pay attention.

Image: Misburg3014 | CC BY 3.0

Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos: An Abbot Driven Into Exile

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cenobio2, CC BY 3.0. The monastery traces its origins to the Visigothic period of the seventh century, when it was known as San Sebastian de Silos. It acquired its current name in the eleventh century, when a monk named Dominic was sent to renovate it by Fernando the Great, King of Castile and Leon. ...

Image: Cenobio2 | CC BY 3.0

Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos: Stone Stories in the Cloister

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit José-Manuel Benito, Public domain. The two-story Romanesque cloister is considered one of the finest achievements of medieval European sculpture. The lower story, begun in the last quarter of the eleventh century and completed in the second half of the twelfth, features paired columns sharing uniquely decorated ca...

Image: José-Manuel Benito | Public domain

Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos: Manuscripts, Medicine, and Music

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rafa Rufino Valor, Public domain. The abbey's library, together with Toledo Cathedral's, was the principal repository of Mozarabic liturgical manuscripts until many were auctioned off in 1878. It still holds the Missal of Silos, the oldest known Western manuscript written on paper. The scriptorium produced an ill...

Image: Rafa Rufino Valor | Public domain

Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos: Thirteen Centuries and Counting

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bocachete, CC BY-SA 3.0. Today, visitors can walk the cloisters and visit the historic pharmacy. They can attend vespers in the abbey church and hear the same chant tradition that sold millions of albums. Access to the library is restricted to researchers, protecting manuscripts that have survived wars, ...

Image: Bocachete | CC BY-SA 3.0