Santa María la Real de Nájera Monastery

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Choir of the church
Main nave

The Monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera ( Monasterio de Santa María la Real de Nájera ) is a medieval foundation. Here is a burial place of the kings of Navarre . It is located on the Way of St. James and is therefore part of the world heritage of the same name .

Geographical location

The monastery is located in the old town of Nájera , in the autonomous community and province of La Rioja in Spain. Historically, the area belonged to the Kingdom of Navarre . The church of the monastery is built very close to a rock slope in which there is a cave, which is included in the complex.

history

Founding legend

The allegedly King García III. Found statue of Mary, today in the high altar

King García III. of Navarre (he ruled from 1035 to 1054) discovered a picture of the Virgin Mary , a bouquet of lilies (symbol of the monastery), a lamp and a bell in a cave in 1044 while hunting . The king decided to build a monastery on this site . The image was venerated under the name of María en la Cueva . The cave in which it is said to have been found included in the complex.

Beginnings

The king furnished the monastery with economic foundations and relics . The church of the monastery was founded on December 12, 1052 consecrated . The king died in the battle of Atapuerca and was buried in the monastery under the image of Mary, which at that time was still in the cave. The monastery was completed under his son and successor, Sancho Garcés IV . This is where monks of the Orden de la Terraza moved in , one of the first knights to be founded during the Reconquista . They celebrated services according to the Visigoth rite . The Roman rite was not introduced until 1067 . Until 1076 Nájera was also the bishopric , which was moved to Calahorra that year . 1079 subordinated King Alfonso VI. the foundation of the Cluny monastery .

Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

In the following years Navarre was ruled by the King of Aragon in personal union until 1134 . Then the Kingdom of Navarre (Pamplona) regained its independence under the reign of King García IV , and the monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera became a royal burial place again.

In 1422, work began on the new church, which replaced the original Romanesque one . The new church was completed in 1453. In 1486 the monastery became independent again from Cluny. A new refectory was built in 1513 and the new cloister from 1517.

In the Comuneros uprising (1520-1522) the monastery was sacked by royal troops.

Between 1621 and 1625 the church received a new facade.

Modern times

During the Spanish War of Independence , the monastery was sacked again, both by French troops and by insurgents.

In 1835, on the occasion of the desamortización , the monks were expelled and the monastery was dissolved. In the period that followed, there was a lot of damage and loss to the building fabric, also due to the inadequate use. The buildings were used as a warehouse, school, bullring, theater and barracks, and from 1845 to 1885 the church was used as the local parish church.

In 1889 the cloister was declared a cultural monument ( Bien de Interés Cultural ). In 1895 a community of Franciscans settled here and began to restore the facility, supported by the state from 1909 onwards. In 1959, a separate organization, Patronato de Santa María la Real , was founded to carry the construction work , to which the autonomous communities of Navarra and La Rioja, the communities of Guipúzcoa , Vizcaya , Álava , Logroño and Nájera as well as the Franciscan order belong today .

Buildings

The Santa María la Real de Nájera monastery shows a colorful mix of different styles. In order to ward off attacks, the monastery is partly built like a defensive system: high walls, few windows to the outside, buttresses that served as bastions.

The church

building

The current three-aisled church was built between 1422 and 1453 and replaced a Romanesque building. The new church was built in the Gothic style, with slim and simple forms, but used the foundations of the previous building. Simple ribbed vaults cover the naves. The choir was built between 1493 and 1495 on a square floor plan. Star-shaped vaults were built in here.

The cave

The statues of King García III. of Navarre and his wife, Queen Estefanía, the founders of the monastery Gothic figure of Mary that is now placed in the cave.
The statues of King García III. of Navarre and his wife, Queen Estefanía, the founders of the monastery
Gothic figure of Mary that is now placed in the cave.

In the rear part of the central nave is the cave in which King García III. of Navarre is said to have found the image of the Virgin Mary in 1044. It is one of many that exist in the Nájera area and that has been used in very different ways. The king then attributed his victories in the wars of conquest against the Muslims to the image of Mary. This picture was placed in the cave until the main altar was built in the 17th century. In 1845 it was replaced by another, a Gothic representation of the Virgin Mary from the end of the 13th century, which was previously in the castle chapel. The entrance to the cave is represented on the left and right by the figures of King García III. flanked by Navarre and his wife, Queen Estefanía, the founders of the monastery.

The cave was one of the places chosen for burial by many nobles and religious. Until the restoration work at the end of the 20th century, these graves were in the floor of the complex.

Furnishing

High altar from 1690

In 1056 an almanius made a retable with gold, enamel and precious stones for the church , but it has not been preserved or can no longer be identified today.

The baroque main altar, which was built around 1690, is completely gilded and decorated over and over under the horror vacui of the time in the style of Churriguerism . The altar is flanked by " Solomonic columns ", which are decorated with grapes and vine leaves. In the central part is the shrine with the image of the Blessed Virgin, which King García III. 1044 allegedly found in the cave. It is a carved medieval wooden sculpture from the 12th century. So it existed at the time when King García III. supposed to have found her in the cave, not yet. The figure is only on the front polychrome taken . It shows the virgin holding the baby Jesus who gives the blessing with his right hand and holds a ball in the left. The picture is of the founders of the Benedictine order, St. Benedict (for the male order, right) and the Holy Scholastica (for the female order, left), as well as the founders of the monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera , King García III. (right) and his wife, Queen Estefanía (left), flanked. Above it is a crucifixion scene, but at the very top there is the coat of arms of Charles I.

In the left aisle there is a replica of the former main altar that existed before the current altar was built. The altarpiece, Christ surrounded by angels playing music , was made by Hans Memling and is now in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp .

The choir stalls were added in 1493. It is a late Gothic masterpiece. The carvings on the backrests are all different, depicting religious symbols, scenes of everyday life and contemporary people. King García III is on the abbot's chair . shown.

Tombs of the royal family

Royal burial place

Royal burial place

At the west end of the church, on either side of the entrance to the cave, are the tombs of the kings and queens of Navarre from the house of Jiménez (918 to 1234). The burial place in the monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera thus succeeded the burial place in the monastery of San Salvador de Leyre , where the first kings of the dynasty were buried. Among others are buried in Nájera:

  • King Sancho II of Navarre and his wife, Queen Urraca Fernández
  • King García III. of Navarre and his wife, Queen Estefanía, the founders of the monastery
  • King Sancho IV of Navarre and his wives, the Queens Placencia of Normandy and Sancha of Castile; seven of his children are buried in the prince's tomb.
  • King Sancho VI. of Navarre

The grave monuments are much younger than the burials themselves and were only created and erected here in the Renaissance 1556–1559. The reclining figures of those buried are depicted on the white stone sarcophagi.

Tomb of the princes

Lid of the sarcophagus of the Blanca Garcés de Navarra

On the right side of the central nave is the prince's burial place ( Panteón de los infantes ). Members of the royal family who did not rule themselves are buried here. The sarcophagus lid of the Blanca Garcés de Navarra , who died young in childbed, should be emphasized . This sarcophagus lid is the only Romanesque that has been preserved in the original. It dates from the 12th century and is decorated with bas-reliefs showing various scenes: Christ as judge of the world in the mandorla - unique on a Romanesque sarcophagus. The apostles are depicted on the bevels of the lid . Below is the dying scene: angels take care of the soul of the queen, who - according to the Byzantine model - is shown as a naked child. Next to it stands the grieving king. Further scenes depict the wise and foolish virgins , the adoration of the Magi and the child murder in Bethlehem .

Tomb of the Dukes of Nájera

Next to the chapter house is the burial place of the Dukes of Nájera . Don Pedro Manrique de Lara was elevated to Duke of Nájera by the Catholic Monarchs on August 30, 1482 . The house died out in the male line in 1600. Among the graves are those of

  • Duke Pedro Manrique III. de Lara, took part in the conquest of Granada under Ferdinand II , the Catholic, and ruled as Viceroy of Navarre from 1512;
  • Juan Esteban Manrique de Lara, who was viceroy of Navarre from 1521 and under whom the later canonized Ignatius of Loyola fought in the siege of Pamplona.

Cloister

Puerta de Carlos I , gate to the cloister
Cloister
Najera - Mº Sta Maria la Real 23.jpg
Najera - Mº Sta Maria la Real 74.jpg
Puerta al exterior del claustro..JPG


Najera - 017 (30678574076) .jpg Nájera, Monasterio de Santa Maria la Real-PM 32634.jpg

Visitors enter the cloister through an anteroom, which is also the staircase to the upper floor of the cloister. This staircase, called "King's Staircase", is built in the Renaissance style and is covered by a hemispherical dome, which is painted with trompe-l'œil cassettes . The central motif of the decoration is a pelican showing the year of construction, 1594. A splendid Renaissance portal, the Puerta de Carlos I , the Karl I./V. has donated to the ground floor of the cloister. The portal is designed extravagantly and decorated with a large royal coat of arms of Charles and a two-headed eagle.

The king also contributed generously to the construction of the cloister, which was built between 1517 and 1528 in the late Gothic style, decorated over and over, not with tracery , but a filling that is reminiscent of textile lace , in pure Renaissance style, with each of the 24 Arches have their own pattern. They stand on slender pillars . The tombstones erected there also correspond to this style. The upper floor of the cloister was not added until 1571 to 1581. During the 19th century, the condition of the cloister deteriorated considerably. For the time being, only the lower floor has been restored.

On the west side of the cloister is the chapel with the tomb of Mécia Lópes de Haro , Queen of Portugal by second marriage. She was the wife of the Portuguese king Sancho II. When he died in 1248, Mencía returned to Nájera, where she lived until her death in 1272. The sarcophagus dates from the 13th century and bears the coats of arms of Portugal and López de Haro. Next to the grave of Mencía lie her brothers and the grave of Garci Lasso Ruiz de la Vega, who died in the Battle of Nájera in 1367. In the cloister there are also numerous aristocratic graves from the 16th to the 18th century, although not all of them have been preserved.

Worth knowing

On the Imperial State Crown , part of the British Crown Jewels , is on the front, in the center of the cross, the "Ruby of the Black Prince ", a spinel . It is said to have come from a statue of the Virgin Mary in the monastery of Santa Maria la Real de Nájera and was given to the Black Prince by King Peter I , whom he had supported militarily.

literature

  • Dietrich Höllhuber and Werner Schäfke: The Spanish Way of St. James. History and art on the way to Santiago de Compostela . DuMont, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-7701-4862-2 .
  • NN: The monastery of Sta. M a la Real in Nájera [leaflet]. OO, before 2019.
  • Werner Schäfke : Northwest Spain. Landscape, history and art on the way to Santiago de Compostela . DuMont, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-7701-1589-9 .
  • Pierre Tisné et al: Spain. Pictorial Atlas of Spanish Art . DuMont Schauberg, Cologne 1968, ISBN 3-7701-4461-9 .

Web links

Commons : Monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 101, gives this year as that of the foundation of the monastery: in Tisné: Spain , p. 102, the year of foundation is given as 1032, which is unlikely because King García III. only ascended the throne in 1035.
  2. ↑ See: Diocese of Calahorra y La Calzada-Logroño .
  3. ↑ Schäfke: Nordwest-Spanien , p. 84, names the year 1456.
  4. ^ As King of Spain Karl was "Karl I.", as German King and Emperor "Karl V."
  5. ↑ Ruby and spinel were often confused in the past.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NN: The monastery .
  2. ↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 101.
  3. ↑ Schäfke: Northwest Spain , p. 83.
  4. ↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 101.
  5. ↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 101.
  6. ^ Schäfke: Northwest Spain , p. 84.
  7. ^ Schäfke: Northwest Spain , p. 84.
  8. ↑ NN: The monastery .
  9. ↑ NN: The monastery .
  10. ↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 103; NN: The monastery .
  11. ↑ Tisné: Spain , S. 102nd
  12. ↑ NN: The monastery .
  13. ↑ Pedro de Palol and Max Hirmer: Spain. Art of the early Middle Ages from the Visigoth Empire to the end of the Romanesque period . Hirmer, Munich 1965, p. 66.
  14. ↑ NN: The monastery .
  15. ↑ Tisné: Spain , S. 102nd
  16. ↑ NN: The monastery .
  17. ↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 101.
  18. ↑ NN: The monastery .
  19. ↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 102; Tisné: Spain , p. 102.
  20. ↑ Höllhuber: The Spanish Way of St. James , p. 103.
  21. ^ Schäfke: Northwest Spain , p. 84.
  22. ↑ NN: The monastery .

Coordinates: 42 ° 24 ′ 57.5 "  N , 2 ° 44 ′ 8.1"  W.