Monestir de Santes Creus in Aiguamúrcia

You're standing on the square in front of the monastery of Santes Creus, a former Cistercian abbey in the Catalan countryside. Start with the colour of the stone. The whole complex is built in warm, honey-coloured stone, and the rooflines are topped with battlements, as if it were a castle. That's no accident: in the fourteenth century King Peter IV had defensive walls built around the monastery.