Above Potes on the valley slope, the Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana is one of the most significant pilgrimage sites in Spain after Santiago de Compostela — a fact that most travelers outside Spain are entirely unaware of. The monastery claims to hold the largest surviving fragment of the True Cross and has been a destination for pilgrims since the early medieval period.

The building itself is modest. The setting is not — perched above the valley with views across the full width of the Liébana, the massif walls rising on every side, the town of Potes visible below. The Jubilee Year of Liébana — celebrated when the feast of Santo Toribio falls on a Sunday — draws significant numbers of pilgrims. In ordinary years the monastery is quiet and accessible and the walk up from Potes takes about thirty minutes through chestnut forest.

Worth the climb for the views alone if the religious significance is not a draw. Worth it for both if it is.