The zeal to uncompromisingly observe the Rule of St. Benedict, which rejects anything superfluous, resulted in the emergence in the 11th century of a renaissance monastic movement which took a stance against the wealth and somewhat sophisticated lifestyle that some monasteries had adopted. The need to regain the figure of the monk as someone dedicated to prayer, hard work and caring for pilgrims led to the birth of the Cistercian Order. Based on the teachings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the Cistercian monastic order spread across the whole of Europe. The Catalan-Aragonese monarchs entrusted the monks with the foundation of important centres endowed with huge tracts of farmland which stimulated the economy and demographic status of their new lands. In Catalonia, communities were established in Poblet, Santes Creus and Vallbona de les Monges in response to the need to colonise the under-populated lands conquered from the Saracens and located in the New Catalonia.

In architectural terms, the monasteries were built in strict adherence to the spirit of the communities that inhabited them and the stringent rules that governed them. Around the central monastic nucleus, a variety of buildings were constructed for administrative purposes, hospitals, chapels for nobles or for monastery servants, and houses for artisans, and in the surrounding areas crop fields and farms were established. This explains why the Cistercians were such masters at farming and livestock raising, and consequently great drivers of the social and economic development of their surrounding area.

By connecting the three monasteries through the creation of the well-known Cistercian Route, established in 1989, a categorical boost was given to tourism in the three counties of La Conca de Barberà, L'Alt Camp and L'Urgell, which have spared no efforts to publicise a region that is imbued with culture, gastronomy, tradition and heritage. From the monasteries, which are the area's leading attraction, visitors can tour the towns and villages of the three counties that make up the Cistercian Route.

This website introduces the paths of the Cistercian Route in an ordered and schematic format. This is a journey that gets the very most out of the monumental, cultural and traditional heritage of the villages and hamlets that are the pride of a region which, above all, offers visitors the grandeur of its past and the humility of a present that is still being written today.