La Rabida Monastery - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

La Rábida Monastery is a Franciscan

Franciscan

Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....

monastery in the southern Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

town of Palos de la Frontera

Palos de la Frontera

Palos de la Frontera is a town and municipality located in the southwestern Spanish province of Huelva, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is situated some from the provincial capital, Huelva...

, in the province of Huelva and the autonomous region of Andalucia. The monastery is located 13 km (8 mi) south of the city of Huelva

Huelva

Huelva is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Huelva in the autonomous region of Andalusia. It is located along the Gulf of Cadiz coast, at the confluence of the Odiel and Tinto rivers. According to the 2010 census, the city has a population of 149,410 inhabitants. The...

, where the Tinto

Tinto River

The Río Tinto is a river in southwestern Spain that originates in the Sierra Morena mountains of Andalusia. It flows generally south-southwest, reaching the Gulf of Cádiz at Huelva....

and Odiel

Odiel

The Odiel River, River Odiel, or simply Odiel is a river in the Atlantic basin in southern Spain, more precisely in the province of Huelva, Andalusia, Spain. It originates at Marimateos in the Sierra de Aracena at an altitude of above sea level. At the Punta del Sebo, it joins the Rio Tinto to...

rivers meet.

The Monastery of La Rábida has been Franciscan property since the thirteenth century. It was founded as a monastery in 1261; the evidence is a papal bull issued by Pope Benedict XIII

Pope Benedict XIII

-Footnotes:...

in that year, allowing Friar Juan Rodríguez

Juan Rodríguez

Juan Rodríguez may refer to:* Juan Rodríguez de la Cámara del Padrón , Spanish writer* Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca , Spanish religious leader & government administrator...

and his companions to establish a monastic community on the coast of Andalucia. The first Christian building on the site was constructed over a small pre-existing Almohad

Almohad

The Almohad Dynasty , was a Moroccan Berber-Muslim dynasty founded in the 12th century that established a Berber state in Tinmel in the Atlas Mountains in roughly 1120.The movement was started by Ibn Tumart in the Masmuda tribe, followed by Abd al-Mu'min al-Gumi between 1130 and his...

building that lends its name
(rábida or rápita, meaning "watchtower" in Arabic) to the present monastery. The Franciscans have held great influence in the region ever since.

The buildings standing on the site today were erected in stages in the late fourteenth century and the early fifteenth century. The monastery, and the church associated with it, display elements of Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

and Moorish revival architecture

Moorish Revival

Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of the Romanticist fascination with all things oriental...

; their walls are decorated with frescos by the twentieth-century Spanish artist, Daniel Vázquez Diaz

Daniel Vázquez Díaz

Daniel Vázquez Díaz was a Spanish painter.Born in Nerva, Spain, Vázquez Díaz settled in Paris in 1918, where he found cubism to be the ideal form of expression...

(1882-1969). There is also a cloister and a museum, where numerous relics of the discovery of America are displayed.

The buildings on the site have nearly 20000 sq ft (1,858 m²) of floor space and an irregular floor plan. Throughout its five hundred years of existence, the monastery has been refurbished and repaired countless times, but the most extensive modifications were undertaken as a result of damage from the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...

stayed at the monastery two years before his famous first voyage, after learning that King Ferdinand

Ferdinand II of Aragon

Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...

and Queen Isabella had rejected his request for outfitting an expedition in search of the Indies

Indies

The Indies is a term that has been used to describe the lands of South and Southeast Asia, occupying all of the present India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and also Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Malaysia and...

. With the intervention of the prior

Prior

Prior is an ecclesiastical title, derived from the Latin adjective for 'earlier, first', with several notable uses.-Monastic superiors:A Prior is a monastic superior, usually lower in rank than an Abbot. In the Rule of St...

of La Rábida and the confessor

Confessor

-Confessor of the Faith:Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith, but not to the point of death. The term is still used in this way in the East. In Latin Christianity it has come to signify any saint, as well as those who have been declared...

to Isabella, Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, he was able to have his proposal heard.

The monastery was declared a Spanish National Monument in 1856.

History

The monastery sits on a rocky bluff that overlooks the confluence of the rivers Tinto

Tinto River

The Río Tinto is a river in southwestern Spain that originates in the Sierra Morena mountains of Andalusia. It flows generally south-southwest, reaching the Gulf of Cádiz at Huelva....

and Odiel

Odiel

, known since ancient times as Saturn's Rock. On this spot, the Phoenicians built an altar dedicated to their god, Melqart

Melqart

Melqart, properly Phoenician Milk-Qart "King of the City", less accurately Melkart, Melkarth or Melgart , Akkadian Milqartu, was tutelary god of the Phoenician city of Tyre as Eshmun protected Sidon. Melqart was often titled Ba‘l Ṣūr "Lord of Tyre", the ancestral king of the royal line...

, the patron of Tyre, also called the Baal

Baal

Baʿal is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu...

(lord) of Tyre, a deity often identified with Hercules

Hercules

Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...

. Later, the Romans chose this same place to venerate the goddess, Proserpina

Proserpina

Proserpina or Proserpine is an ancient Roman goddess whose story is the basis of a myth of Springtime. Her Greek goddess' equivalent is Persephone. The probable origin of her name comes from the Latin, "proserpere" or "to emerge," in respect to the growing of grain...

.

The Arabs also raised a small monastery here to train mounted monk-warriors like those of the Christian orders. The name rábida (or rápita) is derived from the Arabic word for "watchtower", and the ruins of several other Moorish towers of this kind along the Costa de la Luz

Costa de la Luz

The Costa de la Luz is a section of the Andalusian coast in Spain facing the Atlantic; it extends from Tarifa in the south, along the coasts of the Province of Cádiz and the Province of Huelva, to the mouth of the Guadiana River....

still exist. In this environment, Muslim ascetics sought to become perfected spiritually so that they would be better able to defend this isolated coastal frontier of the Moorish empire in Iberia

Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...

.

In the twelfth century, the site passed to the Knights Templar

Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

under the protection of Our Lady of Miracles. In the thirteenth century, it became a Franciscan

Franciscan

monastery. Tradition holds that St. Francis of Assisi himself visited here, in the company of twelve disciples, to found a small and humble monastery. As with the Moors and the Templars before them, the Franciscan brothers established this location, from the beginning, as a stronghold, a place for resisting the depredations of pirates who continually roamed the coast. Pope Eugene IV granted indulgences to all who rendered aid to travelers seeking refuge at this site. Many of the buildings to house and support the Conventual Franciscans

Conventual Franciscans

The Order of Friars Minor Conventual , commonly known as the Conventual Franciscans, is a branch of the order of Catholic Friars founded by Francis of Assisi in 1209.-History:...

, more properly known as the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, were constructed during the first part of the fifteenth century. The noble of the region, Don Juan Alfonso de Guzman El Bueno, the 1st Duke of Medina Sidonia (1410-1468), as well as local commoners, all collaborated in the construction projects.

The monastery is best known in history for the visit of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

in 1490 during which the mariner consulted with the Franciscans about his plans for organizing a voyage of discovery.

After the War of Spanish Independence and the Confiscation of Mendizábal

Confiscation

Confiscation, from the Latin confiscatio 'joining to the fiscus, i.e. transfer to the treasury' is a legal seizure without compensation by a government or other public authority...

, a land reform scheme that seized unproductive church properties, the monastery fell into ruins until, in 1855, a restoration was begun at the initiative of Prince Antoine of Bourbon-Orleans, Duke of Montpensier

Antoine, Duke of Montpensier

- Titles and styles:/*13 July 182421 September 1824: His Serene Highness Prince Antoine d'Orléans*21 September 18249 August 1830: His Royal Highness Prince Antoine d'Orléans...

and the provincial delegation in the Spanish Cortes. In 1882, King Alfonso XII visited the monastery and lent his support to a second round of rehabilitation and improvement with the purpose of commemorating the quadricentennial of the discovery of America in 1892. The king engaged the architect, Ricardo Velázquez Bosco, whose subsequent contributions evinced a profound respect for the atmosphere and spirit of the original building.

The church

The date of the construction of the church cannot be established with certainty. One of the early architectural elements that is well-preserved is the arch-like main doorway. Other features include frescos on the walls and a meticulously painted ceiling of Moorish influence. Also on the walls, there is an eighteenth-century painting of St. John of God and representations of the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Presiding over the main altar is a sculpture of a Christ which replaces an older statue destroyed during the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

. In the south wall there is a small chapel alcove dedicated to the patron of the monastery, Our Lady of Miracles. There is a 14th-century alabaster carving of her in the church.

The cloister

The Moorish revival

Moorish Revival

-style cloister dates from the fifteenth century and remains in a good state of conservation. In the seventeenth century, it was expanded by the construction of a second storey complete with battlements for defense against pirate invasions. It is decorated with paintings of modern vintage, and some fragments of the original paintings survive. Today, on the second floor, there is a permanent exhibition of scale models of the three caravel

Caravel

A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave her speed and the capacity for sailing to windward...

s of the first voyage of Columbus: the Niña
Niña
La Niña was one of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage towards the Indies in 1492. The real name of the Niña was Santa Clara. The name Niña was probably a pun on the name of her owner, Juan Niño of Moguer...

, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria
Santa María (ship)
La Santa María de la Inmaculada Concepción , was the largest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage. Her master and owner was Juan de la Cosa.-History:...

.

The reception room

The reception room is a well-lit rectangular room of ample proportions where, in the days of Columbus, the friars met with him and debated theories and speculations about navigation. The name, “Columbus Conference Room", is often used to refer to this chamber. In 1992, in celebration of the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyage of discovery, there was a meeting of the Spanish council of ministers (cabinet

Cabinet (government)

A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...

), presided over by King Juan Carlos I, in this room.

Other rooms

The refectory is a rectangular room with parallel rows of tables and a whitewashed pulpit

Pulpit

Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...

or lectern

Lectern

A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...

for reading or lecturing or preaching.

The library holds documents and objects of historical interest, most notably the map of the world of Juan de la Cosa

Juan de la Cosa

Juan de la Cosa was a Spanish cartographer, conquistador and explorer. He made the earliest extant European world map to incorporate the territories of the Americas that were discovered in the 15th century, sailed first 3 voyages with Christopher Columbus, and was the owner/captain of the Santa...

on which, for the first time, the American coast appears.

There is also an exhibition room where the flags of each of the American countries and a small sealed vessel containing soil from the New World are on display.

Around a small patio adorned with numerous plants and flowers are rooms decorated with colorful frescos executed by the Spanish painter, Daniel Vázquez Diaz

Daniel Vázquez Díaz

Daniel Vázquez Díaz was a Spanish painter.Born in Nerva, Spain, Vázquez Díaz settled in Paris in 1918, where he found cubism to be the ideal form of expression...

, in 1930. The subject of these paintings is Columbus and his expedition. The paintings are pre-cubist

Cubism

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...

in style, an approach Vázquez Diaz had recently adopted during a sojourn in Paris.

The surroundings of the monastery

In the garden stands The Column of the Discoverers, a monument to commemorate the four-hundredth anniversary of the first voyage of Columbus. It is made of brilliant white stone incised with numerous figures and scenes depicting the colonization of America.

In front of the main entrance is an iron cross and the busts of the Franciscan friars, Juan Pérez

Juan Perez (friar)

Juan Perez was a Spanish Franciscan and companion of Christopher Columbus.-Life:At one time he held the office of contador or accountant to the Queen of Spain, showing he was of noble family. Later he entered the Franciscan Order and Queen Isabella chose him for her confessor.Finding court life...

and Antonio de Marchena, which both were made by the sculptor León Ortega

Antonio León Ortega

Antonio León Ortega, Ayamonte , December 7, 1907 - Huelva, January 9, 1991, Spanish sculptor, he had his professional education in Madrid and he created a personal style in the Andalusian imagery of the 20th century.- Biography :...

.

Next to the entrance is a plaque made of azulejo

Azulejo

Azulejo from the Arabic word Zellige زليج is a form of Portuguese or Spanish painted, tin-glazed, ceramic tilework. They have become a typical aspect of Portuguese culture, having been produced without interruption for five centuries...

s with the following inscription: "The Rábida is the first manifestation of the Hispano-American movement. This place, where the vision of a New World was conceived, is sacred to the hearts of people everywhere. Any Spaniard or American who reflects deeply and elevates his thoughts must ask, 'Won't you help us in our intention to spread love and peace, the forces that radiate from this humble monastery?' Christ, before whom Columbus, Friar Juan Perez, Friar Marchena, and the Pinzóns all prayed, opens his loving arms to men of all beliefs who harbor good will."

Our Lady of Miracles

St. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the patron of the monastery, and a small statue of her can be found in the monastery church. Carved in alabaster

Alabaster

Alabaster is a name applied to varieties of two distinct minerals, when used as a material: gypsum and calcite . The former is the alabaster of the present day; generally, the latter is the alabaster of the ancients...

, the statue is, stylistically, of the school of fourteenth-century Andalucian art.

According to a legend with scant historical basis, this image was brought back from one of his trips by a sailor from Palos de la Frontera

Palos de la Frontera

and, because the Moors were still in Spain, it was hidden by submerging it off the Huelva coast. Later, fishermen hauled it up in their nets and restored it to the church of the monastery. One thing is certain: Columbus and some of his crew prayed before this image hours before setting sail for the New World

New World

The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...

Note

This article is based loosely on a translation of the corresponding article from the Spanish Wikipedia.

External links

Convento de la Rábida Photos