The Monastery was founded in 1363 by Infanta Beatriz, the daughter of Pedro I, according to the latter monarch's will.
Annexed to the Mudéjar palace already in existence, the current church in the Gothic style was built in the 15th century and early 16th century. Its presbytery is covered with a rich Mudéjar roofing from the second half of the 15th century. The Arabic baths, which are among the best conserved of their type, are conserved behind the Church.
Some very important elements of the Mudéjar royal palace have been conserved at the Royal Monastery of St. Clara of Tordesillas: the main door to the palace, at the entrance or Compás courtyard; the remains of structural and decorative elements, plasterwork, the domes of the cloister, the Golden Chapel and another smaller courtyard beside it.
Located in the province of Valladolid, in the Autonomous Community of Castile and León, Tordesillas has a population of about 8,000 inhabitants and is strategically positioned on the Duero river.
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The origin of this historical city, especially important in the times of the Catholic Monarchs, is unclear.
Settlements dating from the second Iron Age have been found in the vicinity of Tordesillas. Iberian and Celtic tribes are likely to have settled in its caves in the V and III centuries B.C.. The most widely-accepted opinion so far places the origin of Tordesillas in the Middle Ages.
The seat of kings, it was also the city-prison for Queen Juana, Juana the Mad, the daughter of the Catholic Monarchs, who died when confined in Tordesillas for State reasons.
It was in this city that Castile and Portugal signed on 7th June 1494 a treaty dividing the Atlantic ocean by half with a "line" traced from pole to pole, 370 leagues west of the islands of Cabo Verde, with the eastern hemisphere going to the Portuguese crown and the western hemisphere to the Castilian Crown.
St. Antolín church-museum
Declared to be a Property of Cultural Interest in 1998, its main interest lies in the Alderete Chapel, where an altarpiece from the 16th century has been conserved.
Church of St. Mary
Gothic in structure, but remodelled in the 16th century to the Escorial style.
Houses of the Treaty
Declared to be a Property of Cultural Interest, two interlinked palaces where the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed in 1494.
