 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 1820 because of confiscations by a new liberal government , but they returned in 1823 after King Ferdinand VII restored conservative institutions . However , the nearby villagers denied support to the monastery despite its protection by the king . The monastery ceased to operate in 1835 : the Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal enforced a law declaring that minor religious holdings housing fewer than 12 residents were to be forfeit to the state ; the monastery had only four monks and one lay brother , who were cast out . 
