the chapter house, and on the south by the kitchen, the pantry and the refectory (dining hall). Some of the buildings were given seven-foot-thick (2 m) walls with slit windows, to serve as a refuge in case the Moors returned to the area. The church was built in the shape of a Latin cross with a nave divided into four sections, and a sanctuary with three square apses. Its presbytery had a central square topped by a pentagon. In 1191, the king confirmed the monastery and its surrounding fields as belonging to the Cistercian Order. The aged abbot of Santa María de Huerta, bishop Martín de Finojosa (later canonized), consecrated the church in September 1213 and died days later. The surrounding area of Murel and Trillo along the Tagus prospered, giving tithes and gifts of land to the monastery. The cartulary, Cartulario de Óvila, is preserved at the University of Madrid. The first buildings were completed in the Gothic style, including the church. The refectory (dining hall) shows an architectural style in transition between earlier Romanesque and contemporary Gothic. A fine High Gothic chapter house was built of best quality hard limestone. The church was rebuilt sometime before 1650 in a late Gothic style with a prominent vaulted ceiling. The cloister was rebuilt around 1617, and is of a simple design with little adornment surrounding a High Renaissance arcade. The final phase of building took place around 1650, with a new doorway for the church, completed in late Renaissance and Plateresque style full of detail. Because of its prosperity and the multiple expansion projects, Santa María de Óvila exhibited examples of every Spanish religious architectural style used from 1200 to 1600. However, even at its height, Óvila remained one of the smallest Cistercian monasteries in the region of Castile. Decline From the 15th century, changes to the areas surrounding Santa María de Óvila initiated a slow decline. Civil wars depopulated the villages of the upper Tagus valley. The monastery's land holdings passed one by one into the hands of the new regional aristocracy: first the Count of Cifuentes, followed by Rui Gomes da Silva, Duke of Pastrana, and the Spanish Army. Neighbors looted more lands. A fire destroyed part of the monastery during the War of the Spanish Succession. During the Peninsular War, French troops looted the buildings and used them as barracks. The monks were forced to leave in