New Clairvaux Monastery

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The Chapter House , reconstructed using stones from the Spanish Óvila Monastery , brought to California by William Randolph Hearst in 1931 .

Kloster New Clairvaux (lat. Abbatia Beatae Mariae de Nova Clara Valley . Engl Our Lady of New Clairvaux Abbey ) is a Trappist - abbey in Vina , Northern California . The monastery , about 33 km north-west of Chico , is best known today for its viticulture and the "Sacred Stones" project, in which 800-year-old stones from the Spanish monastery of Óvila were used to reconstruct a chapter house .

The stones had been brought to California in 1931 by the American publisher William Randolph Hearst to be used in the construction of a castle in the style of the Middle Ages. After Hearst ran out of money to build it during the Great Depression , the stones were initially stored in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco . In the course of the reconstruction project started in 1994, the stones finally came to Vina. There the keystone was placed in the ceiling construction of the rebuilt chapter house in December 2011.

Founding of a monastery and revival of viticulture

New Clairvaux Monastery was founded in 1955 when Gethsemani Trappist Abbey sent a group of monks to Northern California to avoid overcrowding at the mother house in Bardstown , Kentucky . The Vina Ranch, a winery formerly owned by Leland Stanford , the founder of Stanford University , was chosen to establish the new abbey . After the viticulture was given up after Stanford's death towards the end of the 19th century, the land had changed hands several times before the Trappist monks bought the remaining buildings and the surrounding areas in 1955.

In 2000, viticulture in Vina was revived when the monks planted the first vines. Under the leadership of Aimée Sunseri, a winemaker trained at the University of California, Davis , the first wine harvest was brought in in 2003. Sales of the wines, including those of the Syrah , Alvarinho and Viognier grape varieties , began in 2005. In 2012, around 14.5 acres (approximately 5.9 hectares ) were planted with vines around the monastery. The cellar buildings built by Leland Stanford, more than 100 years old, were still used.

Web links

Commons : Abbey of New Clairvaux  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For this and the following cf. Norimitsu Onishi: Monks in California Breathe Life Into a Monastery From Spain , in: New York Times of January 10, 2013, last accessed on January 17, 2013, and the website sacredstones.org , last accessed on January 17, 2013.
  2. ↑ Cf. From Leland Stanford to Trappist Monks ( Memento of December 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the Abbey of New Clairvaux, last accessed on January 21, 2013.
  3. ↑ See Our Vineyards ( Memento of February 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), on New Clairvaux Vineyard, last accessed on January 21, 2013.
  4. ↑ See New Clairvaux Vineyard - About us , last accessed on January 14, 2017.

Coordinates: 39 ° 56 ′ 13.5 ″  N , 122 ° 3 ′ 43.6 ″  W.