The twin monasteries of San Millán de Suso and San Millán de Yuso - UNESCO sites * All PYRENEES

The twin monasteries of San Millán de Suso (6th century) and San Millán de Yuso (11th century) are two monasteries situated in the village of San Millán de la Cogolla, La Rioja, Spain. They have been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since December 1997.

The two monasteries’ names Suso and Yuso mean the “upper” and the “lower” in archaic Castilian, respectively. Suso is the older building and is believed to be built on the site of a hermitage where Saint Emilian (Spanish: San Millán) lived.

Perhaps Suso’s major claim to fame is as the place where phrases in the Spanish and Basque languages were written for the first time. UNESCO acknowledges the property “as the birthplace of the modern written and spoken Spanish language”.

Spanish Language Research Center

The San Millán Foundation creates in one of the parts of the Yuso monastery, the priest’s wing, and in the Santa Rita cloister, the main facilities of the Research Center for the Castilian Language, CILENGUA.

Its objective is the study, the investigation of the origin of the language and the conservation of the world heritage of the monasteries of San Millán.

It develops its activity through three institutes: «The origins of Spanish», «History of the language», and «Hispanic Library», directed by Claudio García Turza, José Antonio Pascual, and Pedro Cátedra.