Moreruela Monastery
| Moreruela Monastery | |
|---|---|
 View from the south |
|
| location |
 Spain Zamora Province |
| Coordinates: | 41 ° 48 '44 " N , 5 ° 46' 37" W |
| Serial number according to Janauschek |
54 |
| Cistercian since | 1131/33 or 1143 |
| Mother monastery | Clairvaux Monastery |
| Primary Abbey | Clairvaux Monastery |
|
Daughter monasteries |
Nogales Monastery , 1164 Aguiar Monastery , 1170 |
The Moreruela Monastery (Monasterio de Santa María de Moreruela) is a former Cistercian abbey in the province of Zamora in the Autonomous Community of Castile and León in Spain . It was declared a National Monument ( Bien de Interés Cultural ) in 1931.
location
The ruined monastery is located on the territory of the municipality ( municipio ) Granja de Moreruela about 2 km west of the small town near the river Esla at a height of about 730 m . The distance to Benavente is approx. 20 km (driving distance) in a north-easterly direction, the provincial capital Zamora is approx. 35 km south.
history
In the place of the current monastery building there was already an abbey in pre-Cistercian times, which the Asturian King Alfons III. or Saint Froilán is said to have founded it for Benedictine monks in the 10th century . The Cistercians took over the monastery in either 1131/1133 or 1143, although the earlier date (which would make the monastery the first Cistercian monastery in Spain) is in doubt. The monastery is a subsidiary of Clairvaux Primary Abbey ; In turn, it took over from the Benedictines in 1164 and 1170 the Nogales monastery about 55 km north-west and the Aguiar monastery about 200 km south-west in the Kingdom of Portugal .
Buildings and plant
Large parts of the monastery have been preserved in ruins - in particular the ruins of the Romanesque, 63 m long monastery church in the form of a Latin cross, the construction of which began around 1170 and which was completed in the second quarter of the 13th century. The at an approximately 27 m wide transept adjoining fully preserved choir has a rib-vaulted handling to the rectangular choir bay and the apse with seven radiating chapels type Clairvaux II (see. About pontigny abbey , Abbaye de Royaumont , Altenberg Cathedral , Heisterbach Abbey , Abbey Marie Instead ) on. The triple- profiled vault ribs inside the apse are just as richly designed, which are led down via three-part wall templates onto consoles , which in turn are cranked by a continuous cornice . The choir yoke, on the other hand, only has a simple barrel vault , which probably continued in the central nave of the church. The walls of the north aisle, which are supported on the outside by mighty buttresses with openings (very rare!), And parts of the three-aisled nine-bay nave are also preserved .
Of the cloister buildings north of the church, u. a. the three-aisled and three-bay, but partially reconstructed chapter house with three small windows in the east wall is worth seeing.
Portal on the north side
Rib vault in the ambulatory
north aisle with buttresses
restored chapter house
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literature
- Henrik Karge: Gothic architecture in Castile and León. in: Spanish Art History - An Introduction. ed. by Sylvaine Hensel and Henrik Karge, Vol. 1, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-496-01076-2 , pp. 113, 121, (floor plan of the church in the appendix)
- Alonso M. de la Granja: El Monasterio de Moreruela: La primera fundación cisterciense en España. Cistercium 1998, vol. 50, No. 210, pp. 313-333, ISSN 0210-3990
- Anselme Dimier : L'Art cistercien hors de France. Zodiaque, La-Pierre-qui-Vire, 1971, without ISBN, p. 40 f
- Javier Sáinz Sáiz: El Románico en Zamora. Ediciones Lancia, León 2003, p. 82 f, ISBN 84-8177-041-8 .
- Bernard Peugniez: Le Guide Routier de l'Europe Cistercienne . Editions du Signe, Strasbourg 2012, p. 833.
