Mosteiro de San Xoán de Caaveiro
The Mosteiro de San Xoán de Caaveiro ( Galician ) or Monasterio de San Juan de Caaveiro ( Spanish ) is a former monastery in northern Galicia .
Geographical location
The monastery is located in the Fragas do Eume National Park in the municipality of Capela , on a mountain nose with steep slopes above the confluence of the Río Sesin stream into the Río Eume .
The facility can be reached from Pontedeume via the narrow DP-6902 road that runs along the river into the park. The road ends about 13 km at a stone bridge. Crossing this, you reach the facility on a steep, well-paved and non-slip economic path.
history
The monastery was founded in 934 to provide safe accommodation for the hermits living scattered in the forest . Donations from Bishop Rosendo de Celanova gave him a considerable fortune. Later the Bishop of Santiago de Compostela assigned territories and jurisdictions to the monastery on the right side of the Río Eume. The monastery now had great influence and achieved the rank of royal collegiate monastery with six canons . It was able to hold this rank until the end of the 18th century.
At the beginning the monastery belonged to the Order of St. Benedict , but changed to the Augustinians in the twelfth century . Dominium reached its greatest extent between 1220 and 1259. It reached from the Pontedeume bridge to the parishes of Cabanas and Irís. More than fifteen parishes came under his jurisdiction.
In the High Middle Ages it lost a lot of economic power with the rise of the Andrade family . This development continued under the rule of the Catholic Kings . It lost much of its possessions. The relics of the now canonized Rosendo de Celanova were transferred to Santiago de Compostela. Paintings and church bells were distributed to churches in the region.
Around 1800 the monastery was abandoned and it began to decline. In 1896, Don Pío García Espinosa, who had bought the surrounding land, resumed operations with the permission of the Archbishop of Santiago. With his death, monastic life died out again.
In 1971 the complex was protected as a Conjunto histórico-artístico . It is now owned by the Province of A Coruña . Since then, they have been trying to maintain and restore the facility.
buildings
Stable house
Gatehouse, view from inside the facility
Santa Isabel Church
Santa Isabel, west portal
Don Pío's house
Canon House
Mill
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General state of construction
The buildings are made of roughly hewn granite stones. They are in good condition on the outside, but mostly empty on the inside.
Outdoor area
To the north of the actual monastery complex lies the ruins of the old monastery mill in the dark valley floor on the Río Sesin.
The Casa do Forno bakery is located on the ridge east of the facility . Today it houses a small restaurant for visitors. The stable house follows on the left. Going upwards, after a few steps, you will reach the enclosure of the churchyard .
Indoor
From there a stone staircase leads up twenty steps to the gatehouse . At the top there is a seventeenth-century Baroque tower in the style of Santiago de Compostela. The coat of arms of the House of Castile and León is carved below it over a rectangular window.
There were originally two churches, of which only the Capela de Santa Isabel has survived, which is attached to the gatehouse on the right. It is a Romanesque building from the 12th century with an almost square main nave, to which a semicircular apse with a semicircular dome adjoins to the east . Pío García Espinosa had the church restored and lengthened the nave a little. The west portal is a staggered round arched gate, the vault of which is supported by round columns with decorated cube capitals . In the tympanum a relief sculpture is Agnus Dei carved.
The submerged collegiate church was to the west of it in the highest area of the complex.
Don Pío's little house is on the site of the former sacristy of this church. The two houses of the canons form the western end of the complex on the outside of the mountain nose.
Individual references and notes
Web links
- Site of the monastery near Turgalicia .
Coordinates: 43 ° 25 ′ 3 ″ N , 8 ° 4 ′ 6 ″ W.