Monastery of Cós
The Santa Maria de Cós Monastery ( Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Cós ) was a Cistercian convent in the Portuguese community of Cós , also spelled Coz, in the Alcobaça district in the Leiria district . It was under the jurisdiction of the Abbey of Alcobaça, about eight kilometers away . It was dissolved in 1834 in connection with the state-ordered closure of the monasteries in Portugal. In addition to the monastery church, only the ruins of the dormitory remain today.
history
founding
The monastery goes back to a testamentary order by King Sancho II (1204-1248) to found a women's convent, which was carried out in 1279 by the then abbot of Alcobaça, Don Fernando . It was one of the very few direct foundations of a daughter monastery by the Alcobaça Abbey. Settlement of the area of Cós probably lasted until the 8th century BC. BC and the abbey had already founded a farm there. The establishment of nunneries near monasteries by men was a tradition among the Cistercians. The founder of the original Cistercian monastery in Cîteaux , Saint Robert von Molesme , established the first Cistercian nunnery in nearby Tart . Especially in the early days of the Cistercian movement in the 12th and 13th centuries it was not uncommon for even married men to enter the monastery and their wives, sometimes with children, as well as brothers who devoted themselves to monastic life to their sisters, sometimes even their mothers Urged entry into a nunnery. It is therefore assumed that in the beginning mainly women who were close to the monks of the Abbey of Alcobaça were accepted into Cós.
Ascent to the Cistercian monastery
The women's convent in Cós led a shadowy existence until the 16th century, and there was hardly any evidence of structural development of the facilities during this period. Only after a delegation from the convent visited the main Cistercian monastery in Citeaux in 1532, the convent was formally subject to the Cistercian rules and recognized as a nunnery of this order. The rise of this monastery began around 1558, now mainly promoted by the Cardinal King Henrique , who was also Abbot of Alcobaça between 1540 and 1580 and King of Portugal for the last two years of his life. The church and the ruins of the monastery date from this period and the following century. According to the size of the choir stalls, the monastery had up to 160 nuns. The monastery, like all monasteries in Portugal, was closed in 1834 and later sold. The church was bought back by the state, the ruins of the monastery are still privately owned.
Church and former monastery
Structural development
The construction of the church began as early as the first half of the 16th century, and in the second half of this century the new monastery facilities were also built, such as the dormitory, of which ruins are still preserved today. From 1669 the church was redesigned again and received its current baroque appearance up to the beginning of the 18th century. The new cloister, built from 1671 onwards, was removed after 1834. Today, next to the church, the sacristy, a hall and an outbuilding have been preserved.
Choir
The church has a floor area of about 55 × 12 meters. The coat of arms of the Abbey of Alcobaça is emblazoned over the side entrance on the south side. Inside, the church is completely separated in the middle by a wooden lattice that extends to the ceiling. Only one doorway connects the side of the altar, which was also accessible to the faithful, with the other half of the choir, which was reserved for the nuns and where one of the best-preserved and largest choir stalls in Portugal is located on both sides of this separated part of the church. Its foldable seats have foldable little standing supports on the lower surface, so that the nuns could find a support there during long ritual standing (a facility that they colloquially called Misericórdia , i.e. mercy). The organ, which is said to be privately owned today, was placed on a gallery above the partition. At the end of the choir, a Manueline door that still exists today led to the former cloister. The tiles and the choir stalls date from the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Ceiling and chancel
The vaulted ceiling of the church is decorated with 80 painted wooden panels, which date from the beginning of the 18th century. While general religious symbols are depicted in the area of the publicly accessible part of the church, only images of saints from the history of the Benedictine and Cistercian orders are reproduced on the ceiling panels of the choir. The sanctuary, which is open to the public, has several side altars. The high altar consists of gilded carvings with two pairs of Solomonic columns from the 18th century and a gallery.
sacristy
The approximately 49 m² sacristy to the side of the chancel on the north side is lined all around with azulejos from the 18th century, which reproduce images from the life of St. Bernard of Clairvaux in ten large-scale representations . The templates were taken from the illustrated book "Vita et Miracula D. Bernardi Clarevalensis Abbatis" from 1587 by the Italian artist António Tempesti . Significant stations in Bernhard's life are depicted, such as that of his decision to pursue a spiritual life, where he can only resist sexual temptation by taking a cold dip (reproduced here), or that of the legendary miracle of Arroça, where he succeeds in taming the devil.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Rui Rasquilho: Travel guide for the area of Alcobaça. Trans. V. Wolfgang Lind. Alcobaça 1979, p. 85
- ^ Peter Dinzelbacher : Bernhard von Clairvaux. Knowledge Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1998, pp. 17-18, 45
- ↑ Igreja de Santa Maria de Cós. In: Pesquisa Geral - Pesquisa do Patrimonio. Direção Geral do Património Cultural , accessed March 23, 2018 (Portuguese).
- ^ Maur Cocheril: Routier des abbayes cisterciennes du Portugal. Paris 1978, p. 341
literature
- Rui Rasquilho: Guide to the Alcobaça area. Trans. V. Wolfgang Lind. Alcobaça 1979.
- Maur Cocheril: Les Azulejos de l'Abbaye Cistercienne de Cós, en Estremadura. Paris 1974.
- Maur Cocheril: Note Sur la Décoration de L'Église de L'Abbaye Cistercienne de Santa Maria de Cós, Alcobaça. Paris 1983.
- Maria Zulmira Albuquerque Furtado Marques: Por Terras dos Antigos Coutos de Alcobaça. Alcobaça 1994, pp. 128-132.
- Cristina Maria André de Pina e Sousa e Saul António Gomes: Intimidade e Encanto: O Mosteiro Cisterciense de Sta. Maria de Cós. Lisbon 1998, ISBN 972-8345-09-7 .
Web links
- Bazar das Monjas de Coz (Portuguese / English)
Coordinates: 39 ° 36 '7.3 " N , 8 ° 57' 20.8" W.