its construction, and involved masonry, brick and ashlar stones. It maintained the simplicity and frugality characteristic of the Franciscan order. The newly constructed monastery had a small 5x5 meter central cloister with eight Tuscan order granite columns supporting eight arches. This formed the lower gallery of the courtyard. The upper gallery was composed of an equal number of arcs. A granite well made of square curbstone was built indoors in the center of the courtyard. There is also an upper floor where the bedrooms of the Franciscans were located. The interior features a dining area, a barrel vault made of brick, an interior courtyard, a choir in the church and more bedrooms. Towards the southeast there are a series of swinging buttress double doors that lead into the aisle. The church is small and is attached to the cloister. There are other rooms around the cloister including the refectory, choir, sacristy, library, corridors and twelve cells. Abandonment The Loriana meadow was first populated in the thirteenth century by the Order of Santiago and later by small hamlets that emerged alongside the convent in the sixteenth century. The monastery of Loriana had a significant impact on the history of Lácara and was a fundamental part of the town of Loriana. Documentary sources from Puebla de Obando, Lobón, Roca de la Sierra, La Nava de Santiago, Torremayor, Montijo and Puebla de la Calzada point to the presence of the Loriana Franciscans at festivities and other important religious celebrations. The importance of the monastery declined over time due in part to damages suffered during the Portuguese Restoration War and the War of the Spanish Succession that, between 1640 and the early 1700s, affected border areas of Baja Extremadura, including communities in Alburquerque and Badajoz. According to tradition, the monastery was a place of refuge for nearby towns. By the mid-eighteenth century the area was unpopulated, as indicated in the Catastro of Ensenada, although the Franciscan monastery was still functional, occupied by a community of eighteen monks and three lay minors. In the nineteenth century the monastery was damaged during the Spanish War of Independence. A few years later, Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal laws resulted in the final abandonment of the monastery by the friars in 1841. After the departure of the Franciscans the building passed into private hands and several farmhouses were built nearby. Now located on private property with restricted access, the