Monastery of Santa María de Vallbona
Encyclopedia
The Monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbona is a Cistercian abbey in Vallbona de les Monges
, in the comarca of Urgell
, Catalonia
, Spain
. Founded in the early 12th century, it is one of the most important monasteries in Catalonia
; its church represents an example of transition between Romanesque
and Gothic architecture
. The abbey was declared a national monument in 1931.
, and in that year decided to switch to the Cistercian order. Two years later the abbey received several privileges from King Alfonso I of Aragon, and subsequently it could expand thanks to the numerous donations from noble families. Other privileges came from bulls issued by Pope Innocent III
in 1198, 1200 and 1201.
In the 12th-14th centuries the monastery created a true fiefdom
across the county of Urgell, which was legally confirmed when abbess Saurena de Anglesola (1379–1392) bought the civil and criminal jurisdiction over these lands from King Peter III of Aragon
. At the time there were some 150 nuns in the abbey, most of Catalan noble origin.
The Catalonian Civil War
(1462–1472) and later the Council of Trent
(1545–1563) had a deep impact over the monastery. The latter issued a law by which female communities in uninhabited places were forbidden, which forced the nuns to sell several of their lands (1573) to colonists who could form a settlement around the monastery. This settlement later evolved in the current town of Vallbona de las Monges. In the following centuries, strife with the monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet, and events such as the Catalan Revolt
(1640–1652), the War of Spanish Succession (1705–1717) and the War of the Pyrenees
(1788–1795), eroded the economic prosperity of the abbey.
. The latter is longer but narrower than the nave, to which it is connected by a rectangular shape surmounted by an octagonal dome, supported by 13th century squinch
es. The transept's arm end with square apse
chapels. The nave is covered by cross vaults, while the transept has barrel vault
s.
The bell tower, built in 1340-1348, has an octagonal plan. It is in Gothic style. The presbytery
houses the sepulchre of Violant of Hungary
, wife of King James I of Aragon, who died in 1251 and whose remains were brought here in 1275. To the right of the choir is the Corpus Christ Chapel, which has a polychrome stone image of Mary, work of Guillem Seguer
.
s supported by columns and capitals with foliate reliefs and a tympanum
sculpted with the Virgin and Child, surrounded by angels. Above the latter is a decorated frieze.
Another gate is located on the church's northern wall, but is now obstructed by a sarcophagus enclosed in an ogival
arch. This wall has a total of five sarcophagi, four in Romanesque style (13th century) and one in Gothic style.
is on a quadrangular plan, whose sides, of different lengths, correspond to different, successive ages and construction styles (12th-15th centuries). The oldest sector, on the south, shows the original, sober Romanesque-Cistercian canons: it has three spans formed by three pier
s, with three rounded arcades supported by columns with undecorated capitals.
The eastern wing is also in Romanesque style (early 13th century), and has five spans divided by four pilasters, The arcades form triple mullioned windows with, in the mullions, small rose window
s with decoration in Arabic style. The capitals of the columns have vegetable motifs.
The northern wing is the shortest one; it has wide hollows with ogival traceries
in Gothic style, dating to the 14th century. The western side, the most recent one, was built in the 15th century in proto-Renaissance style. The capitals of the columns show the heraldic symbols of the Caldés family, who produced the monastery's abbesses during that period.
The Capitular Hall is accessed from the cloister through a Gothic gate built under abbess Anglesola in the 14th century, and has a cross-vault cover. The pavement features several tomb slabs of abbesses, and there is an alabaster
image of the Virgin of Mercy
, attributed to the sculptor Pere Johan
.
Vallbona de les Monges
Vallbona de les Monges is a municipality in the comarca of the Urgell in Catalonia, Spain. It is located at the southern end of the comarca, north of the Serra del Tallat, Catalan Pre-Coastal Range, where many wind turbines have been installed....
, in the comarca of Urgell
Urgell
The County of Urgell is one of the historical Catalan counties, bordering on the counties of Pallars and Cerdanya.The county was carved by the Franks out of a former section of the Mark of Toulouse when the Alt Urgell area became part of the Carolingian Empire between 785 and 790.The original...
, Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, Spain
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...
. Founded in the early 12th century, it is one of the most important monasteries in Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
; its church represents an example of transition between Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
and Gothic architecture
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....
. The abbey was declared a national monument in 1931.
History
Initially the monastery consisted in a community of hermits, documented from 1157, which followed the Benedictine rule; in 1175, however, only a small group of nuns remained. In 1163 they had received territories from Ramon Berenguer IV, count of BarcelonaRamon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona
Ramon Berenguer IV , sometimes called the Holy, was the Count of Barcelona who effected the union between the Kingdom of Aragon and the Principality of Catalonia into the Crown of Aragon....
, and in that year decided to switch to the Cistercian order. Two years later the abbey received several privileges from King Alfonso I of Aragon, and subsequently it could expand thanks to the numerous donations from noble families. Other privileges came from bulls issued by Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III was Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni....
in 1198, 1200 and 1201.
In the 12th-14th centuries the monastery created a true fiefdom
Fiefdom
A fee was the central element of feudalism and consisted of heritable lands granted under one of several varieties of feudal tenure by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the...
across the county of Urgell, which was legally confirmed when abbess Saurena de Anglesola (1379–1392) bought the civil and criminal jurisdiction over these lands from King Peter III of Aragon
Peter III of Aragon
Peter the Great was the King of Aragon of Valencia , and Count of Barcelona from 1276 to his death. He conquered Sicily and became its king in 1282. He was one of the greatest of medieval Aragonese monarchs.-Youth and succession:Peter was the eldest son of James I of Aragon and his second wife...
. At the time there were some 150 nuns in the abbey, most of Catalan noble origin.
The Catalonian Civil War
Catalonian Civil War
The Catalonian Civil War, also called the War against John II, was a civil war in the Principality of Catalonia between 1462 and 1472. The two factions, the royalists who supported John II of Aragon and the Catalan constitutionalists , disputed the extent of royal rights in Catalonia...
(1462–1472) and later the Council of Trent
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
(1545–1563) had a deep impact over the monastery. The latter issued a law by which female communities in uninhabited places were forbidden, which forced the nuns to sell several of their lands (1573) to colonists who could form a settlement around the monastery. This settlement later evolved in the current town of Vallbona de las Monges. In the following centuries, strife with the monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet, and events such as the Catalan Revolt
Catalan Revolt
The Catalan Revolt affected a large part of the Catalan Principality of Catalonia between the years of 1640 and 1659. It had an enduring effect in the Treaty of the Pyrenees , which ceded the county of Roussillon and the northern half of the county of Cerdanya to France , thereby splitting the...
(1640–1652), the War of Spanish Succession (1705–1717) and the War of the Pyrenees
War of the Pyrenees
War of the Pyrenees refers to the Pyrenees front of the First Coalition's war against the First French Republic. Also known as Great War, War of Roussillon, or War of the Convention, it pitted Revolutionary France against the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal from March 1793 to July 1795 during the...
(1788–1795), eroded the economic prosperity of the abbey.
The church
The church, built in the 12th-14th centuries in a transitional style between the Romanesque and the Gothic, has a Latin cross plan with a single nave including four aisles, and a transeptTransept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
. The latter is longer but narrower than the nave, to which it is connected by a rectangular shape surmounted by an octagonal dome, supported by 13th century squinch
Squinch
A squinch in architecture is a construction filling in the upper angles of a square room so as to form a base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome...
es. The transept's arm end with square apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
chapels. The nave is covered by cross vaults, while the transept has barrel vault
Barrel vault
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault or a wagon vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve along a given distance. The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design...
s.
The bell tower, built in 1340-1348, has an octagonal plan. It is in Gothic style. The presbytery
Presbytery (architecture)
The presbytery is the name for an area in a church building which is reserved for the clergy.In the oldest church it is separated by short walls, by small columns and pilasters in the Renaissance ones; it can also be raised, being reachable by a few steps, usually with railings....
houses the sepulchre of Violant of Hungary
Violant of Hungary
Violant of Hungary was Queen consort of James I of Aragon. She is also called Jolánta in Hungarian, Iolanda or Violant d'Hongria in Catalan and Yolanda or Violante de Hungría in Spanish.-Family:...
, wife of King James I of Aragon, who died in 1251 and whose remains were brought here in 1275. To the right of the choir is the Corpus Christ Chapel, which has a polychrome stone image of Mary, work of Guillem Seguer
Guillem Seguer
Guillem Seguer was a Catalan sculptor and architect active in the mid-14th century.One of his first known works is a contract in 1342 for a Virgin with Child in the parish church of Vinaixa, destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. A "Virgin with Child" from Seguer is today in the Metropolitan...
.
Gates
The main gate is located in the northern transept arm and faces the monastery's square. It features five archivoltArchivolt
An archivolt is an ornamental molding or band following the curve on the underside of an arch. It is composed of bands of ornamental moldings surrounding an arched opening, corresponding to the architrave in the case of a rectangular opening...
s supported by columns and capitals with foliate reliefs and a tympanum
Tympanum (architecture)
In architecture, a tympanum is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, bounded by a lintel and arch. It often contains sculpture or other imagery or ornaments. Most architectural styles include this element....
sculpted with the Virgin and Child, surrounded by angels. Above the latter is a decorated frieze.
Another gate is located on the church's northern wall, but is now obstructed by a sarcophagus enclosed in an ogival
Ogee
An ogee is a curve , shaped somewhat like an S, consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite senses, so that the ends are parallel....
arch. This wall has a total of five sarcophagi, four in Romanesque style (13th century) and one in Gothic style.
Cloister
The cloisterCloister
A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...
is on a quadrangular plan, whose sides, of different lengths, correspond to different, successive ages and construction styles (12th-15th centuries). The oldest sector, on the south, shows the original, sober Romanesque-Cistercian canons: it has three spans formed by three pier
Pier (architecture)
In architecture, a pier is an upright support for a superstructure, such as an arch or bridge. Sections of wall between openings function as piers. The simplest cross section of the pier is square, or rectangular, although other shapes are also common, such as the richly articulated piers of Donato...
s, with three rounded arcades supported by columns with undecorated capitals.
The eastern wing is also in Romanesque style (early 13th century), and has five spans divided by four pilasters, The arcades form triple mullioned windows with, in the mullions, small rose window
Rose window
A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...
s with decoration in Arabic style. The capitals of the columns have vegetable motifs.
The northern wing is the shortest one; it has wide hollows with ogival traceries
Tracery
In architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...
in Gothic style, dating to the 14th century. The western side, the most recent one, was built in the 15th century in proto-Renaissance style. The capitals of the columns show the heraldic symbols of the Caldés family, who produced the monastery's abbesses during that period.
The Capitular Hall is accessed from the cloister through a Gothic gate built under abbess Anglesola in the 14th century, and has a cross-vault cover. The pavement features several tomb slabs of abbesses, and there is an 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...
image of the Virgin of Mercy
Virgin of Mercy
The Virgin of Mercy is a subject in Catholic art, showing a group of people sheltering for protection under the outspread cloak of the Virgin Mary. It was especially popular in Italy from the 13th to 16th centuries, often as a specialised form of votive portrait, and is also found in other...
, attributed to the sculptor Pere Johan
Pere Johan
Pere Johan or Pere Joan was a Catalan Gothic sculptor.He was the son of sculptor Jordi de Déu, a former slave and disciple of sculptor Jaume Cascalls...
.