The Cistercian Order has a rich history continues today, in the heart of the evolution of the Roman Church and the European states. The “white monks” were exemplary builders who participated in the development of rural areas, masters of the most advanced agricultural techniques – as shown by their legacy of barns, cellars, mills and foundries – and who from the Middle Ages onwards contributed to the development of art, knowledge and understanding in Europe. The European Route of Cistercian abbeys proposes to give meaning to the Cistercian heritage our age has inherited, through a rural tourism based on discovery and quality, educational and cultural events and on the use of new digital tools adapted to cultural heritage conservation and promotion.
