The Monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes stands on one of the peaks of the Serra de Rodes, a mountain range right by the sea in the north of Alt Empordà. It is one of the many testimonials of Catalan Romanesque architecture, but it may also be one of the most architecturally sophisticated.
From the 11th to the 14th century it was the main spiritual centre of the county of Empúries and its splendor can be seen in the large dimensions of the monastic complex. This comprises the church, the bell tower, the cloister, the sacristies, the conventional rooms for everyday living and the Palau de l’Abat (the Abbot's Palace).
The monastery is built in terraces in order to adapt to the terrain and the various buildings are arranged around the cloister and the church, built between the 10th and 11th centuries. In these two buildings you can see an exceptional example of Romanesque sculpture: the columns (original) and the capitals that crown them tell us about the classical influence that has marked this unique church.
On the outside, the ‘portalada’, designed by the Mestre de Cabestany, showed different scenes from the life of Christ carved in white marble. The scarce fragments that remain, give us a sample of their extraordinary quality, probably one of the best of its time.
From the monastery you can enjoy one of the best views of Cap de Creus. Shortly before reaching it, you will see the ruins of the medieval village of Santa Creu de Rodes, the most notable of these being the Church of Santa Helena de Rodes.
A la riba del riu Gaià, trobem el monestir de Santes Creus , que era el centre d’un dels dominis monàstics més extensos i influents del Regne d’Aragó. Amb una arquitectura sòlida, seriosa i austera, l’abadia reflecteix el model canònic dels monestirs cistercencs (juntament amb Vallbona de les Monges i Poblet ). Visitar Santes Creus és reviure un moment en què la puresa i la distància del món de les persones es van concretar en un lloc ben arrelat a la terra.
Fundat el 1160, el punt àlgid de Santes Creus es trobava entre els segles XIII i XIV, per la seva estreta relació amb la noblesa i la família reial. Els reis, Pere el Gran i Jaume II el Just i la seva dona, Blanca d’Anjou, eren patrons del monestir i van optar per ser enterrats aquí, en dos mausoleus gòtics al costat de l’altar major. L’estudi i restauració de les tombes reials, el 2010, va permetre que es descobrissin intactes les restes de Pere el Gran i Blanca d’Anjou, les úniques restes dels Reis i Reines de la Corona d’Aragó.
El pla fonamental del monestir va organitzar els espais segons les necessitats de la comunitat. L’església, que es va obrir per al culte el 1225, és un exemple de la transició del romànic al gòtic. Tot i aportar sensació de lleugeresa i grandiositat, és un temple sòlid i auster. Contrasta amb l’esplendor del claustre, que data del segle XIV, el primer d’estil gòtic de la Corona d’Aragó.
Symbol of the city, the Cathedral of Girona is an imposing building, located on the highest point in the town and with a unique feature: its single nave is the second largest in the world (only surpassed by St. Peter's in the Vatican). But the temple hides many treasures beyond its dimensions. At the top of a spectacular staircase with 90 steps there is a compendium of 5 centuries of history.
Romanesque feet, Gothic body and Baroque face. This is the current appearance of the Cathedral of Girona. The Tower of Charlemagne, the cloister and sacristy are the only things left of the first Romanesque building from the mid-11th century. The cloister is one of the most important in Catalonia thanks to its sculptural wealth.
The church, of huge dimensions, was built between the 14th and 18th centuries and was dedicated to Santa Maria. The first stone of the facade of the Cathedral was placed in 1606, but it was not finished until well into the 20th century. The dilation in time means that the structure is between Baroque and Classical.
Attached to the Church we find the Cathedral Treasury with two notable pieces of great artistic value: the Tapestry of the Creation (one of the few examples of Romanesque textiles) and the Beatus de Girona (a 10th-century copy of the Commentary on the Apocalypse made by the Blessed of Liébana, with more than 100 full page miniatures).
In this small valley in the Pyrenees there are a group of exceptional churches and chapels which stand as both the cradle and the ultimate expression of Catalan Romanesque art. Declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 2000, the Vall de Boí group comprise Sant Climent and Santa Maria in Taüll, Sant Joan in Boí, Santa Eulàlia in Erill la Vall, Sant Feliu in Barruera, Sant Quirc and Church of the Nativity in Durro, Santa Maria in Cardet and the Church of the Assumption in Coll. All the churches can be visited except for Sant Quirc in Durro, and the Church of the Assumption in Coll.
In the Lombard Romanesque style, the churches of the Vall de Boí are functional, simple temples with one or three naves, built with small granite ashlars. The roofs are wooden-beamed or barrel-vaulted. And these churches are the artistic reflection of an austere society, tied to the natural environment and strongly hierarchical.
The interiors of the churches were decorated with mural paintings and carvings. The hieratic figures (with images of the Virgin and the Saints and the dominant figure of the Pantocrator) and the play of colours characterise symbolic paintings of great creativity which represent one of the highest achievements of Romanesque art at an international level.
Since the late 19th century and into the early 20th century, this Romanesque group fascinated the intellectuals of the Catalan Renaixença. Josep Puig i Cadafalch, among others, and institutions such as the Institute of Catalan Studies contributed to the appreciation and preservation of the art of the Pyrenees.
Today, a good many of the paintings, carvings and furniture are kept in different museums, particularly in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC). Even so, many of the churches have important fragments of mural paintings and original Romanesque sculptures, as well as reproductions of those which are preserved in museums. In the case of Sant Climent de Taüll, a modern mapping recreates the original frescoes of the apse and offers an immersive experience of what it was like at the time of its creation. At the same time, a visit to this group of churches can be complemented with a visit to the Romanesque Centre of the Vall de Boí.
Under the protection of Kings and noblemen, the monastery of Poblet became the nerve centre of medieval Catalonia. The royal pantheon during the middle ages, the complex has become a cultural and historical symbol where the Cistercian monks have come back to live.
The construction of the monastery began in the 12th century and in avariety of architectural styles such as Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. However, the complex enjoys complete harmony both among its architectural elements (which contain all the splendour of theCistercian order) as well as in its relationship with the surroundings of the Prades mountains.
Some of the most notable elements of the monastery include: the Church, which follows the style of Cistercian temples, and where one must admire the altarpiece from the high altar, a Renaissance group in white alabaster by Damià Forment; the beautiful gothic chapel of Sant Jordi, built in the time of Alfonso the Magnanimous (15th century), and the royal gate, a magnificent Gothic construction flanked by two octagonal towers.
It was the king, Pere III El Ceremoniós, (Peter the Ceremonious, 1319-1387) who tied the monastery to the Crown of Aragon, constructing the royal pantheon there, which until then had been in Santes Creus. Here they installed the sepulchres of Alfonso I, Jaume I el Conqueridor (James the Conqueror), Pere III and many of his successors. The sepulchres, made of white Alabaster, were worked by some of the best sculptors of the time.
Founded in the early 12th century, Santa Maria de Vallbona de les Monges is the most important female Cistercian Monastery in Catalonia. From the time of its construction, in 1153, it has always been inhabited by nuns and currently forms part of the Cistercian Route (along with Santes Creus and Poblet).
The complex is representative of Cistercian art, faithful to the Rule of Saint Benedict. As can be seen in Vallbona de les Monges, it bypasses ornamentation, achieving sober and functional spaces.
During the visit to the Church, it is worth looking up for a moment. On the main portal (13th century), one can find one of the first reliefs of Santa Mariato appear on a tympanum in Catalonia. Once inside, the church is characterised by simplicity and the wonderful play of light. To the right of the altar there is the simple and plain sarcophagus of Queen Yolande of Hungary, wife of Jaume I the Conqueror.
The simplicity and austerity continues in the cloister, where one can clearly see the stages of construction. The south nave, primitive Romanesque, does not have any kind of decoration. The eastern nave, 13th-century Romanesque, features small rosettes. The northern nave is Gothic and, finally, the western nave is a Renaissance building from the 16th century, but it follows the general style of the Romanesque galleries.
The Cathedral of Santa Maria was built between the 12th and 14th century on the highest point of the city, in a place full of history. Previously there had been a 10th century mosque, a Christian Visigothic basilica and, earlier, a Roman temple. The Cathedral in Tarragona hides, within its foundations, an ancient temple dedicated to Augustus.
The existence of this building was known through numismatic and written references, although its location wasn’t stated. The most logical idea was that it would be found in the forum of the ancient ‘Tàrraco’ (the Roman name for Tarragona), where centuries later Christian temples were erected. In 2010, a team of archaeologists excavated the central nave of the Cathedral and laid bare the remains of the Roman temple.
The Cathedral itself, however, is a transitional work between Romanesque and Gothic periods; the former was then still current, and spread in the 12th century to many parts of the New Catalonia. In Tarragona later styles such as Gothic, coexisted with the Renaissance and the Baroque.
Notable are the three portals of the church, which correspond to its three naves: the main one is Gothic and the other two Romanesque. Looking up, however, you can see that the Cathedral is unfinished, due to the ravages caused by the black death.
The Gothic cloister, which leads to the Diocesan Museum, stands out for it extensive sculptural decoration. The more curious visitors can find an Arabic inscription dating from the year 960 from the ancient mosque and the representation of the popular legend of the burial of a cat by rats.
Inside, the presbytery and the central apse have a fully Romanesque element that one might pass without noticing: the pavement. It is made of stone and marble, coloured white, black, orange and yellow, and with geometric interlaced designs.
What doesn’t go unnoticed is the large organ. It was made in the 16th century, although in 1929 the mechanism and the pipes were replaced by those of the Romantic organ from the Palau Maricel in Sitges.
It is in the chapels, built in the 14th century, where the shift towards the Gothic and later styles is most evident. The most outstanding piece is the polychrome, alabaster altarpiece, which has sculptures of Santa Tecla, Santa Maria and Sant Pau.
The Girona Art Museum, founded in 1976, could not have chosen a better setting than the Episcopal Palace, from the 12th and 16th centuries, to host its collection. The museum has the third most important collection of Romanesque and Gothic art in Catalonia. The jewel in the crown is the portable altar from the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes, made of stone and wood covered with silver.
Notable also from the medieval collection is the polychrome Romanesque beam from the Monastery of Sant Miquel de Cruïlles, one of the few preserved in Europe. Or the Virgin of Besalú, considered one of the best Gothic examples of its kind. Names such as Bernat Martorell and Lluís Borrassà also have presence there.
But the art collection of the Girona Art Museum goes beyond the Middle Ages. It consists of 8,500 objects that span from the Greek colonies up to the twentieth century.Specifically, this last period also has a presence in the Museum with works by Joaquim Vayreda, Santiago Rusiñol and Ramon Martí i Alsina.
The Monastery of Sant Pere de Galligants, from the 12th century, is one of the most important Romanesque monuments in Girona. It is located within the urban setting of the city, an unusual fact given that most monasteries are found in places of isolation. But this Benedictine Abbey is also unique for its chancel and the bell tower.
The chancel of Sant Pere is unique for having a complicated asymmetrical form: it is formed by a main apse with two apsidioles on one side and one on the other, while at the end of the arm of the transept there is another lateral apse which makes one think about the reuse of elements from a previous church. Within this space is found the perfectly symmetrical eight-sided bell tower, with Lombard decoration.
Most notable is the sculpture found on the capitals of the main nave and, above all, those of the chancel. It is these for which Sant Pere de Galligants is most famous; and which have generated most controversies... some historians are firmly convinced that they bear the hand of the Master of Cabestany and his workshop; others, however, believe that they are influenced by the School of Toulouse.
From 1857, Sant Pere de Galligants was used as a museum of archaeology and fine arts, one of the oldest in Catalonia. Currently it is the headquarters of the Girona branch of the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia and includes the archaeological materials found in the excavations of several sites in the Girona region, from prehistory to the Middle Ages.
A Baroque church, a neo-classical convent-residence... and a cavern. These three elements make up the Cave of Sant Ignasi de Manresa, an architectural complex converted into a Centre of Spirituality, which is one of the iconic images of the capital of the Bages region.
Located on Puig de Sant Bartomeu, in one of the caverns formed by erosion from the waters of the Cardener river, this complex was built around the site where tradition says that St. Ignatius of Loyola lived for 11 months, meditating and writing part of his Spiritual Exercises, between 1522 and 1523.
In the cavern is the Relleu del Rapte de Sant Ignasi, (the Rapture of San Ignatius), a mid-17th century alabaster altarpiece, carved by the Manresan sculptor, Joan Grau, his Francesc and Josep Sunyer.
The Church, built in the 18th century with design of Josep Moretó of Vic, combines a discreet interior, in which the altar of the Blessed stands out, with a Baroque façade, both rich in elements and proportionate to its size.
Completing the complex is the convent-residence of the Jesuits, of neoclassical inspiration, and the lobby or hallway that connects the Church and the cavern, modernista in style and decorated with marble, mosaics, stucco, stained glass and metals.
