Santa María de San Salvador Monastery (Cañas)
The Santa María de San Salvador monastery near the small town of Cañas in the autonomous region of La Rioja is one of the architectural gems in northern Spain . Here there exists a Cistercian - Convent of the Cistercian Congregation of San Bernardo (CCSB) .
history
A small monastery at this place is documented as early as 922 and 1047. In 1170, just a few years after the death of St. Bernhard von Clairvaux (1153), Count Lópe Díaz de Haro and his wife Doña Aldonza Ruiz de Castro donated the two neighboring estates ( villae ) Cañas and Canillas to the nuns from the Benedictine monastery of Las Ayuelas near Santo Domingo de la Calzada , which belong to the order of the Cistercians had joined. Doña Urraca López de Haro y Ruiz de Castro, who (1225–1262) was the abbess of the monastery and daughter of the count couple, who was buried in the chapter house , began building the church and the chapter house in the first half of the 13th century; however, many of today's monastery buildings (especially the cloister) ultimately only date from the 18th century. Nothing is known about the appearance of any previous buildings.
architecture
church
The three-aisled eastern half of the church, completed around the middle of the 13th century, including the crossing and the transept area, is one of the earliest examples of high Gothic architecture in Spain. The large central apse is divided into three levels by two horizontal cornices - the lower one is visible to the wall and unexposed; the two upper ones are almost completely occupied by colorless tracery windows with alabaster panes; the lower windows are strongly profiled and have four lanes, while the upper ones are only slightly profiled and three lanes. A rib vault with a round keystone closes the room off at the top. The lateral apses are much smaller and were primarily used to accommodate additional altars; in the north side of the apse, a find polychrome combined statue of Our Lady with an almost adult Christ child on her lap and a statue of St. Dominic of Silos . The nave of the church with its canopy-like ribbed vault - originally planned to have three aisles, but ultimately only with a single nave - was not completed until the 16th century under the direction of Abbesses Isabel Téllez and Leonor de Osorio ; the latter also commissioned the large altarpiece (retablo) .
Chapter House
The chapter house comes from the middle of the 13th century. There is a clearly recognizable stylistic gap between its portal area, built in early Gothic forms, and its interior, designed in a high Gothic style. The room, which is slightly lowered compared to the cloister, is divided into four square yokes by a slender central column that accommodates the vaulted ribs, which are illuminated both from the cloister and through two double-lane tracery windows on the rear wall.
The chapter house served not only as a meeting room for the monks, but also as the burial place of important abbesses, including that of the abbess Doña Urraca López de Haro y Ruiz de Castro from the end of the 13th century, who was carried on the back of six animals (dogs, lions etc.) rests. The right side of the sarcophagus shows a funeral procession of nuns and abbots, the left shows scenes of mourning and lamentation; the foot side contains a relief with the soul lifted up into heaven by two angels in a cloth. The head and parts of the chest of the reclining figure ( gisant ) were destroyed in the 19th century and later reconstructed; two servants kneel at her feet.
Cloister
Only parts of the east wing of the cloister are old; Otherwise the four-wing complex was built in the unadorned neoclassical style of the 17th and 18th centuries. The floor covering of the cloister consists of small pebbles, some of which are laid out like a mosaic. The other monastery buildings are also the work of the 17th to 20th centuries.
Furnishing
Like all Cistercian churches, the abbey church of Cañas was originally comparatively plain and colorless. It was not until the 16th century that the magnificent altarpiece was commissioned, which presents both carved parts and picture panels and is dedicated to the life and virtues of Our Lady . Its triptych-like structure, reminiscent of Gothic winged altars, is unusual for the time . It blocked the windows of the main apse until 1975 , then it was dismantled and placed in the west of the nave of the church. Over the centuries, many small devotional objects were added, all of which are now kept in the monastery museum.
Window in the chapter house
Abbess's tomb
Altarpiece
museum
A small museum is housed in parts of the cloister, in which small baroque reredos, crucifixes , vasa sacra and devotional objects of all kinds as well as photographs on the history of the monastery are shown; a room presents several relics , including a horseshoe print of the horse of St. James from the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212).
literature
- Ghislain Baury: Les religieuses de Castille. Patronage aristocratique et ordre cistercien, XIIe-XIIIe siècles , Presses Universitaires de Rennes, Rennes 2012, ISBN 978-2-7535-2051-6 .
- Bernard Peugniez: Le Guide Routier de l'Europe Cistercienne . Editions du Signe, Strasbourg 2012, p. 807.
Web links
- Cañas Monastery - Photos and Info (Spanish)
- Cañas Monastery - Map, Floor Plan (Spanish)
- Cañas Monastery - Video (Spanish)
Coordinates: 42 ° 23 ′ 33 " N , 2 ° 50 ′ 40" W.