Very close to Estella-Lizarra, three kilometres from Abárzuza between the green valleys that make up the Yerri mountains, stands the monastery of Irantzu. It perfectly fulfils the conditions established for its construction “… at the bottom of an enclosed valley, close to a river where the water flows abundantly and with the sky as a horizon, in order to be closer to God”. The Cistercian monks established the monastery in 1176 and although they were protected by the Carlists during the Desamortización (confiscation of church property) of 1835 they had to abandon it in 1839 when it became the property of the State. The building remained empty until 1942 when its reconstruction started, and a year later the Teatine fathers settled in Irantzu. They are the current inhabitants of the monastery, although it had traditionally been Benedictine.