Cartuja de Miraflores, Burgos, Spain

A monument that evokes a major turning point in the history of Spain and the world has just been restored by the World Monuments Fund: Cartuja de Santa María de Miraflores, which contains the tomb of the Infante Alfonso and the mausoleum of his parents, King John II and his second wife Isabel, whose daughter Queen Isabella was the major patron of Christopher Columbus. The church, part of the monastery complex of Santa María de Miraflores in Burgos, embodies the last flowering of the middle ages in Spain, just prior to the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand in 1469 which joined the royal lines of Castille and Aragon, creating modern Spain as we know it today, and opening up the era of exploration.