The Piedra Monastery will not open until early 2025 after damage from floods

The Piedra Monastery , one of the main economic bastions for the Calatayud region, will remain closed for at least the next two months after the strong effects of the DANA that devastated everything in the middle of last week. This was confirmed on Tuesday by its director, José Pont. “The damage is considerable. We are in the evaluation phase but the situation is devastating. Bridges, stairs, fences, access to important points of the visit have been damaged…”, he specified.

According to the Bilbilis sanctuary, the Piedra River overflowed, multiplying its flow by 50 or 60. It is also the second “unprecedented” flood that the river has experienced in the last two months. “This has been double and we have not remembered another like the one in September. Back then it reached 30 cubic metres per second and now we have not been able to measure the flow but we believe it has been double. The usual flow is around one cubic metre per second,” lamented Pont, who added that in the previous flood the damage could be repaired in a week but now it will take between two and three months.

For this reason, the director of the Monastery has focused on the economic sector generated around this very touristy space in the area. Pont said that “everyone will suffer”. “ The effect is clear. We have closed the park to visitors and it has repercussions on satellite elements. We are talking about restaurants, shops, hotels, rural houses”, he stressed.

DGA ANNOUNCES AID TO ALLEVIATE THE EFFECTS OF DANA

“I have seen a lot of devastation even though I already knew what was coming.” These were the words of the Minister of Environment and Tourism in the Government of Aragon, Manuel Blasco, who visited the Natural Park on Tuesday to see first-hand the damage caused by the storm around the Monasterio de Piedra.

Blasco has announced that this Wednesday the DGA will announce a package of aid aimed at recovering public infrastructure and roads. “It is the job of the Government of Aragon to visit the main damaged areas. We were already in Valderrobres and Montalbán last week. This aid will be supplemented later because there are places where the damage has not yet been assessed,” said the politician from Teruel, who also pointed out that private companies will be supported by supplementing their insurance to “restore the situation in the shortest possible time.”