In 956 King Sancho I ordered the erection of a church in honour ofSan Pelayo, near the church of San Juan, which would later be used as a monastery for noble women, hence the name of collegiate church. A century later, after the ruthless Muslim conquest ofAlmanzor, Alfonso V rebuilt it and Fernando I and Sancha extended it, transferring the relics of San Isidoro to the temple and building the primitive Pantheon of the Kings. It was his daughter Urraca who commissioned the paintings that decorate what has been called theSistine Chapel of the Romanesque, which we will talk about later.
Thus, over the course of 100 years, the following kings of the kingdom will, to a greater or lesser extent, endow it with new artistic elements until it becomes the jewel we know today and where the first Parliamentary Courts in European history would beheld, back in 1188. Included in 2013 by UNESCO in the Memory of the World Register and which have earned León the title of Cradle of Parliamentarianism.
