NOTE: Please see the full schedule in the "Plan Your Visit" section.
Last admission 30 minutes before closing time.
From 1 September to 30 June
From Thursdays to Saturday: from 10 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.
Sundays and public holidays: from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
July and August
From Tuesday to Sunday: from 10 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.
The monastery of Sant Bartomeu de Bellpuig is the product of a world in transformation: a witness to the transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance and the emergence of a new way of thinking that seeks the transcendence of the individual, his glory and honour, beyond death.
The monastery was commissioned in 1507 by Ramon Folc de Cardona i Anglesola, lord of Bellpuig, who was also viceroy of Naples and Sicily. The aim was to build a setting for his mausoleum, influenced by the customs of the Neapolitan nobility for whom a mausoleum of marble with its own chapel was one more sign of power and magnificence. At the same time the donation to the Franciscans guaranteed the intercession of the community for the salvation of his soul.
The architecture of the monastery shows the contrast between Franciscan austerity and the splendour with which the Cardona Anglesola family wished to endow it, to be seen most of all in the decoration of the cistern cloister.
As the execution of the project too a considerable time, the Gothic structure of the complex gave way to Reinassance elements such as the cladding of the east façade, the second floor of the cloister or the Duke's viewpoint. The chapterhouse, the chalice cupboard, in the Florid Gothic style, and the Plateresque wash basin of the refectory are good examples of the stylistic superimposition of the complex.
The most monumental piece was the founder's own mausoleum, in the monastery church. This is a fully Renaissance work that exalts the virtues and records his military victories for the purpose of perpetuating his memory.
After the attacks during the Peninsular War and the abandonment that followed confiscation in 1835 there was a fear that this heritage would not survive, and the mausoleum was moved to the parish church, where it can be visited today, whilst the monastery was subjected to the refurbishements required by the various uses to which the building has been put since that time.
Standard: €4
Concession: €2
Entitled to concessionary admission charge:
Entitled to free admission:
Special cases:
NOTE: These times are now the ones in use. Please ignore any others published earlier on this or any other website or in informative leaflets and triptychs.
Last admission 30 minutes before closing time.
From 1 September to 30 June
From Thursdays to Saturday: from 10 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.
Sundays and public holidays: from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
EASTER OPENING TIMES (Last admission 30 minutes before clossing time)
Saturday: from 10 a.m. to 1.30 p.m and from 3 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.
Friday, Sunday and Monday: from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Summer (July and August)
From Tuesday to Sunday: from 10 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.
Closed on Mondays except public holidays, 25 and 26 December and 1 and 6 January.
Group guided tours
Guided tours for groups with advance booking
Tel. Information and bookings 977 638 556, from 10 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.
or e-mail reservesmonuments.acdpc@gencat.cat
Pets are not allowed inside the monument.
The facilities are equipped for people with disabilities and the blind.
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