 The new owners of Santa María de Óvila were well @-@ to @-@ do farmers who cared little for the buildings . For a brief time , the former monastery was used as a hostel , but mainly , the buildings were subjected to hard agricultural use as barns sheltering livestock . The chapter house served as a manure pit . Other buildings were used as storage . In the early 20th century small trees were seen to be growing in the dirt packed atop the monastery roofs — the protective roof tiles had long since been taken down and sold . 
