Abbaye Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa
The Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa ( Sant Miquel de Cuixà in Catalan ) is one of the oldest Benedictine monasteries in the French Pyrenees . It is located at an altitude of 430 m at the foot of the Canigou , about 45 kilometers west of Perpignan , 2 kilometers south of Prades , in the municipality of Codalet in the Têt Valley ( Pyrénées-Orientales department ).
The abbey is of great interest in several ways. The transition from pre-Romanesque architecture to premier art roman méridional (first main phase of the Romanesque , shaped by Lombard influences) can be traced here at the turn of the millennium . Furthermore, the first of the great workshops of Romanesque sculpture in Roussillon in the 12th century was established here to decorate the church . Last but not least, the abbey illustrates the patronage of the Counts of Cerdagne at the height of their power.
Orientation notes
Mention of the cardinal points: The church building is not, as is usually the case, oriented with the choir to the east ("easted"), but to the northeast. Accordingly, the north side faces north-west, the west side faces south-west and the south side faces south-east.
Designation of the cloister galleries: The sloping position of the cloister towards the church and its above-mentioned orientation to the northeast has led to the fact that only the gallery along the northwest aisle is referred to as the southeast gallery, while the other three are called the west, north and east gallery (see also the Ground plan of the monastery in the buildings section today ).
The outline of the cloister obviously comes from the old pre-Romanesque monastery buildings to the west of the present-day monastery, which were almost exactly aligned with the four cardinal points. When building the cloister, one then had to refer to the older buildings found surrounding the building site and therefore came up with the floor plan of an irregular square.
history
Founding of a monastery and pre-Romanesque building
It all started with the establishment of a monastery, as it often happened in the early Middle Ages. At first a very small community of monks settled near the thermal springs of Eixalada (today Thuès-Entre-Valls ) above Cuxa in the valley of Têt in Haut-Conflent and built the Abbey of Saint-André d'Eixalada around 840 . On July 16, 864 (or 865) the small community was joined by a group of clergy from Urgell ( Catalonia ), led by the archpriest Portais d'Urgell . This group included three priests, a monk and a sub-deacon .
However, the abbey's rapid upswing was almost wiped out shortly afterwards by a natural disaster - at the beginning of autumn 878, the monastery buildings, which were very close to the river, were swept away by the floods of the Têt after heavy rains, probably with a landslide. Several monks were killed.
Thereupon Portais donated his allod to the survivors , which he had reserved for himself in a small fertile plain of the Conflents, in Cuxa, at the foot of the Canigou . A church was found there, consecrated to St. Germanus of Auxerre , which had been rebuilt about 25 years earlier by the Count of Cerdagne Seniofred and solemnly consecrated on July 30, 953 by Bishop Riculf von Elne .
The monastery community now settled in their immediate vicinity, and Portais was elected their first abbot in 879. This church has not existed for a long time and its exact location is not even known.
Thanks to the protection of the Count of Cerdagne and its rich endowments, the monastery soon prospered. Donations and purchases ensured that it became the owner of large properties within a short time.
In Cuxa there was a second church, or rather an oratorio , dedicated to the Archangel Michael in the second half of the 10th century . The worship of this angel was widespread in Carolingian abbeys, as the emperor was worshiped in him. The cult then turned into a popular veneration for the conqueror of the hell dragon. So the archangel gradually took the place of the Bishop of Auxerre Germanus and eventually became the new and only patron saint of the monastery.
Count Seniofred decided to have the sanctuary, which had become too small, rebuilt. He planned this project meticulously and secured broad participation. After discussing it with “his bishop”, that of Elne, other bishops, abbots, clergymen and the faithful, he obtained the approval of everyone and decided to replace the original tiny building with a “real church”. This is how construction work began in 956. His nephew was named a restorer in a papal bull .
Two texts report on the reconstruction of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. The first is the deed of consecration dated September 28, 975, from which the above information comes. The second written source was written by a monk from Cuxa named Garsias . It contains ample details of the progress of the construction work between 956 and 975 and provides information on the various renovation and expansion works that were carried out in the first half of the 11th century. This text was published in the Marka hispania , the work of Pierre de Marka , in 1688 , not according to the missing original, but according to texts that are all based on a single copy. The numerous transcription errors and the corrections made by Pierre de Marca and his editor Baluze are not always convincing, but this does not detract from the extraordinary importance of the document. The following Garsias still often quoted.
Construction began in 956 under Abbot Pons , using the broken stones and house stones that were common at the time. The written records indicate "that the company began to draw the arcs in the air, when the building has a length of 33 yards and a width of 40 large margins had reached " This may mean that, after the establishment of the rectangular apse the Had built arcatures of the nave and transept .
Abbot Pons died in 961, however, and Abbot Garin (Guarius) took his place and completed this construction. Count Seniofred did not live to see the completion either, as he died in 965 or 967.
Abbot Garin had the walls erected high and the central nave and choir spanned with wooden beamed ceilings, which were particularly noteworthy for the great length of the beams and the beauty of their decorations. Immediately he had a stone altar of considerable dimensions - 13 half feet long and nine feet wide - erected in the part of the rectangular chancel facing the ship , made of a striking white tabletop on four hexagonal supports. He had a piece of the "true cross" enclosed in it and buried in another, lower-lying, non-visible place - probably in a separate container - a total of 90 other relics of Christ, the Virgin, the apostles and various saints. He probably gathered this sacred treasure on his travels to Italy and the Holy Land .
The pre-Romanesque abbey church, most of which has been preserved today, was built on the plan of a Latin cross . It is not aligned with the choir to the east as usual, but to the northeast. Its three-aisled nave has a five-bay central nave , which is flanked by two slender side aisles , which, however, only extend from the second to the fourth bay. On the south corner of the central nave, the remains of arches in the partition wall and the head wall of the aisle suggest that the aisles had passed through in the meantime. The naves are separated from each other by strong partitions, each with five horseshoe-shaped arcades . The central nave was originally covered by a level wooden beam ceiling, the side aisles by half round barrels. One entered the central nave through the central main portal in the facade, with a horseshoe-shaped arch. There was also a horseshoe-arched side portal in the north-west and south-east walls of the side aisles. The transept had low, broad, barrel-vaulted arms, which opened on the northeast side into two deep barrel-vaulted chapels, which were closed by semicircular apses with semi-dome-shaped domes. The north transept section and its chapel were destroyed in 1839 when the north tower rising above them collapsed. The transept arms still open today with horseshoe-shaped arcades into the central nave and the aisles. Their two rooms were also separated from each other by such arches. The slightly rectangular choir apse, the pre-Romanesque sanctuary, was initially covered with a wooden beam ceiling like the central nave and was separated from the transept chapels by narrow passages, as found in some Carolingian churches, to which a door opened in the choir walls. They were probably intended for processions. The openings from the transept arms into these passages have very special shapes, the forerunners of which have been identified by J. Puig i Cadafalch in Syria and Mesopotamia: There is no tympanum above the horizontal lintel, but a high, horseshoe-shaped arcade opening.
The choir first opened into the central nave almost across its entire width with a high, horseshoe-arched arcade.
The transept belongs to a type of building that was widespread in the Carolingian era and survived even later, especially in Ottonian architecture . The half and full barrel vaults of the transept arms and aisles indicate that efforts to create stone vaults in churches - at least in parts of the rooms - were already being carried out in the Conflent before the masons of the premier art roman méridional came.
On September 28, 975, the bishops of Elne , Girona , Vic , Urgell , Toulouse , Couserans and Carcassonne took part in the solemn consecration of the seven altars in Cuxa, the number of which commemorates the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. This includes in particular the main altar, which consists of a reused block of marble that comes from an ancient building ( Spolie ).
The pre-Romanesque abbey church of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa is a mighty, almost unspoilt, raw structure that is still shrouded in the veil of a mystery that hides the origins of its style.
In the second half of the 10th century, the Cuxa monastery had become the "agent" of the Holy See's policy in the Catalan countries and had extensive international relations. From this it acquired an undisputed authority and its sphere of influence grew considerably. Shortly before the turn of the millennium, Abbot Garin headed a convent congregation, which also included the Abbeys Lézat and Mas-Garnier in Toulousain, Saint-Hilaire in Saint-Hilaire and Sainte-Marie in Alet-les-Bains , south of Carcassonne. He was in close contact with the leading scholar of the time, Gerbert, who later became Pope Silvester II. Because of his high reputation, Garin drew such famous men as the Doge of Venice, Pietro Orseolo and St. Romuald , the founder of the Camaldolese order , to Cuxa. Intensive artistic activities went hand in hand with this material and spiritual progress.
Mozarabic influences?
The abbey church of Cuxa was first described by Jean-Auguste Brutails and Josep Puig i Cadafalch as a fairly common building from the early Romanesque period. However, this assessment changed fundamentally when the architect Félix Fernández, who was entrusted with the preservation of Córdoba , believed to recognize peculiarities under several layers of plaster applied over the centuries, which he believed to be specific to the Muslim architecture of the Umayyad period identified: The proportions of the strongly horseshoe-shaped arches, the tightly closed curvature of which rests on briefly protruding pillars, the use of large stone blocks to clad these wall reinforcements, the use of longitudinal and head stones in the pillar edges, all these are characteristic elements, as they are in the Buildings of the mosque of Cordoba and the palace of Madīnat az-zahrāʾ were used. Felix Fernández attributed the imparting of architectural forms from Cordoba to the monastery of Cuxa to the Mozarabs , i.e. those Christians who had lived under Muslim rule.
Since the publication of the interesting book Iglesias mozarabes by Manuel Gómez-Moreno in 1919, people knew about the spread of Andalusian culture in the area of León, which after it was founded by the King of Asturias Alfonso III. the Great (866-910), had been recaptured, was repopulated with the help of Christians who came from Umayyad Spain. Mozarab monks brought their liturgical implements and their artists with them and founded monasteries, which would soon become focal points of artistic creation and spread the Andalusian influence. Georges Gaillard transferred the observations of Manuel Gómez Moreno to Catalonia and found that a sculptor from Cordoba had used a cycle of capitals for the Abbey of Santa Maria de Ripoll , as he did in the great mosque of Cordoba in the epoch of Hakam II. (961– 976) and Almansor (976-1001) was in use. He also suspected that a Mozarabic or Muslim architect had left characteristic features of Andalusian art in Cuxa, such as the lines of the horseshoe arch and the type of masonry. Perhaps it was the same builder who, in 978, accompanied Abbot Garin to the monastery of Saint-Hilaire (Aude) to carry out the work that had become necessary after the discovery and translation of the relics of the patron saint. The skill of this artist was widely praised.
Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa was thus included in the group of Mozarabic churches until more detailed research called this premature assumption into question. Sylvain Stym-Popper (1906–1969) demonstrated that the alleged borrowings from the architecture of Cordoba had neither the precision nor the severity as had been assumed by Felix Fernendes and Georges Gaillard. The horseshoe arches are in fact different proportions. The arches are drawn in between ¼ of the radius in the north transept arm to 3/5 of the radius of the former south gate. The arch stones do not converge radially in the lower layers, but have a horizontally layered arch starter ( tas-de-charge ), as with false arches. Their arched reveals , usually without a fighter, are bricked in very irregularly in the transept, especially in the nave. Pierre Ponsich pointed out that the arches step back behind the vertical reveals, in contrast to Córdoba and Mozarabic architecture, where the vertical reveals jump back against the arches. It is therefore advisable to give up the idea of a Mozarabic descent and to assign Cuxa to the Visigoth tradition, which has been enriched by some elements of the Carolingian monastery architecture.
Romanesque additions and alterations: the work of Abbot Oliba
The documents of the monk Garsias also provide information about the additions that were made to the pre-Romanesque church under Abbot Oliba (* 971 in Besalú; † 1046 in Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa). Oliba, who was both abbot and bishop and came from the Counts of Cerdagne, played an important role in the crucial period of transition from a society that was still deeply rooted in the Visigothic-Carolingian traditions to a feudal society in Catalonia. He defended the traditional order in the face of the newly emerged forces, but his efforts for the peace of God ( Treuga dei ) have gone down in history . The architectural work on the Saint-Michel church was divided into two large groups: the first involved enlarging the choir head , the second an ensemble of buildings that was erected in front of the south-west facade of the church, as the terrain there is sloping was, partly below the level of the church floor.
Before he subjected these buildings to a closer examination, Garsias reported in detail on the beautification work in the old choir. In 1040 Abbot Oliba had a canopy built over the altar . It consisted of four foot (= 2.30 m) high columns made of red marble with capitals made of white marble and decorated with flowers and foliage. Above each other, wooden arches with a span of three half cubits supported one another . In the four corners were also carved from wood, the evangelists and "had their eyes on the lamb enthroned at the top". In his symbol-saturated remarks, Garsias referred to the canopy as a propitatorium , thereby referring explicitly to the lid of the Ark of the Covenant made by Moses . It is regrettable that this example of Roussillon plastic art, which combined marble sculpture, wood carving and painting, was lost.
The erection of the canopy coincided with a renewed consecration of the main altar, which was carried out because extensive renovations had been carried out in the abbey church, such as the expansion of the choir to include a corridor with north-eastern intercourse chapels and the south-western expansion to include oratories on two floors. The enlargement of the choir head, with a rectangular floor plan, took place in two stages. First of all, the exits on both sides of the choir were closed and the passages were transformed into narrow, long and rectangular galleries with half barrel vaults. The former large window openings in the side walls of the choir had lost their function and were therefore bricked up.
The second extension section is the extension of the choir head to the northeast, including its side galleries, the construction of which is dated back to the second half of the 11th century. It is another somewhat wider gallery, the top walls of which are an extension of the free side walls of the other two galleries. On the east wall there were once three apsidioles with a semicircular floor plan, which are covered by half domed domes . These apses are said to have housed the altars above the tombs of the martyrs Valentin (February 14th) and Flamidian (January 5th) and the confessor Nazarius (January 12th). The last two came from the region and were only venerated in the monastery of Cuxa. According to the encyclopedia of saints, the martyr Valentin should be Valentin von Terni , since his feast day falls on February 14th. Several places in Europe claim to keep bones as Valentine's relics, but Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa is never mentioned. After 1725 only the north-western apseid was preserved until J. Puig i Kadafalch succeeded in uncovering the foundation walls of the south-eastern apse and finally, during excavations, to locate those of the middle one, which had been demolished at this point in 1725 to build the large Marienkapelle .
The galleries, which were attached to the original choir head on three sides, soon became a real (de) ambulatory , a choir ambulatory that turned twice by 90 degrees and led past three new altars. It is comparable to other cloisters found in Carolingian crypts, especially those in Saint-Germain in Auxerre . It could be a coincidence, but it could also be an indication of the influence of an abbey with which the monastery in Cuxa must have been related. The monk Garsias justified this expansion by saying that it made the service necessary. At about that time it began, that the monks have sought in Western Europe to priests ordained to be, to get the privilege of bread and wine to consecrate the body and blood of Christ. The three altars set up over relics of saints are to be seen in connection with the increasing number of private masses. These were celebrated in somewhat more remote places in the church so as not to disrupt the general service in the choir room. It is known that Abbot Oliba had the interior of the church painted with frescoes, but this does not mean that the walls had not been plastered until then. The wall paintings on the plaster made the rooms look completely different from the bare, very irregular natural stone masonry known today, which rather suggests that it was plastered earlier. Remnants of wall paintings are still preserved in a pointed arch wall niche in the apse .
The most important work under Abbot Oliba was finally carried out in the south-west of the church facade. The terrain is sloping at this point, so that one could build in two levels. The chapel of the Mother of God or the “Virgin of the Manger” was built on the partly underground chapel, which gave the entire work its importance. The arrangement and dedication of the upper chapel of the same size indicate that Mary is under the protection of the Archangel Michael. This protective role of St. Michael over the Virgin Mary and the child can be found in a similar way in many churches, chapels or oratorios from this period.
Abbot Oliba had both chapels integrated into a whole ensemble of buildings, which form a crypt on the lower floor , the Crypta de la Crèche (crib crypt), in memory of the Nativity Grotto in Bethlehem. A significant number of buildings are known which were consecrated to the Virgin Mary and which have the same circular floor plan, such as the Pantheon in Rome, which was rededicated in 610 from a Roman sanctuary to a Church of Mary under the name of Sancta Maria ad martyres . A characteristic detail that justifies the comparison with the Roman building is the fact that the Nativity Church of Cuxa was built over relics of martyrs. In other words: Mary, referred to by Garsius as Regina , rules here - as in heaven - surrounded by the witnesses of faith.
The architectural creation of the “Nativity Crypt” - the Marian shrine - is flanked in the northwest and southeast by two chapels, which are dedicated to the archangels Gabriel (in the NW) and Raphael (in the SE) - symbolizes the intention that the Romanesque sculpture in turn takes up elsewhere and is illustrated, for example, on a capital on a portal of Saint Sernin in Toulouse, where Maria is flanked by Gabriel and Raphael . To the southwest of the Lady Chapel, a gallery stretched across the entire width of the crypt, which was vaulted by a half-barrel and served as a vestibule, through which the crypt is entered today. The gallery once carried the stairs of the same length up to the Trinity Church.
The Chapel of the Holy Trinity ( Saint-Trinité ), which is largely destroyed today, was built by Abbot Oliba exactly above the crib church. Since the uncovering carried out by Sylvain Stym-Popper in 1952, its floor plan up to a height of about one meter above ground level has been known more precisely. From this, the former structural members that have been raised can be reconstructed more or less authentically today. Its outer walls had roughly the same almost square outline, the sides of which took the width of the main nave, and rose above that of the Marian shrine in the crypt. However, the lines inside are more “refined” than there. A large circle (diameter 9.50 m), a half oval (diameter approx. 6.00 m), both main parts of the church, and a semicircular choir apse (diameter 3.70 m) interlock, the last one conceals the altar. Their centers all lie on a central axis from SW to NE. Small triangular rooms have been created on both sides of the altar, which are enclosed by sections of the circular inner wall and the corner outer walls. They were accessed by slim doors from the church. A spiral staircase was built into each of the opposite corners of the building, which flanked the main portal. One can imagine that these stairs led to a gallery above the main portal or to two small towers. The round wall of the chapel was broken through by five doors, three in the south-west, north-west and south-east opened to the outside, the other two in the north and east gave access to the triangular rooms, which were perhaps storage rooms for books and equipment for worship. A total of six semi-elliptical niches were set into the wall surfaces between the door openings , which were probably vaulted by corresponding domes.
Garsias reported that Abbot Oliba had steps built into this Holy of Holies so that the access of the faithful who wanted to see the Altar of the Trinity would be easier. It was probably the above-mentioned staircase spanning the entire width of the crypt, to which the main portal and two side portals in the southwest opened. The faithful also had two stairs in the northwest and southeast, which, unlike the stairs in front of the main portal, did not lead directly outside, but first into the two cross-vaulted galleries, which were arranged as an extension of the aisles of the main church Saint-Michel. These corridors were accessed directly from the outside in the north-west and south-east via narrow stairs.
The two galleries flanked both the first yoke of the Michaelskirche, as well as the atrium and the Dreifaltigkeitskirche up to its southwest facade in the same width throughout. On the facade of Michael’s Church there are cantilever brackets above the portal and other traces of a monopitch roof connection, evidence of a connecting passage between the two galleries, and at the same time the roofing of the main portal. The galleries and corridors connected the two churches protected from the weather and opened up to the atrium. This combination of churches by an atrium enclosed by galleries is reminiscent of the Constantinian basilica of Old Saint Peter in Rome with its atrium in front of the facade. The Liber pontificalis even mentions the erection of an oratory of the Virgin Mary in the structures in front of the facade of the basilica. One entered this oratory after having strode up the great staircase from the building complex, as in Cuxa. Apt Oliba has added local aspects to this basic scheme.
What the vaulting of the Holy Trinity Church, its roof and the roofs of the galleries around the atrium looked like, there is no information about this in the written sources. A vault would be conceivable from a combination of three domes with the plan of a large circular dome, which are intersected with a dome with an oval plan and a small dome with a circular plan, as the plan of the chapel dictated. However, the church interior probably did not have a central support, as on the floor below. The exposed floor shows no contours of such.
The exterior of the south-western extensions is known from a reconstruction in the form of an architectural model of the entire church (see photo). After that, the entire length of the two galleries was covered with slightly sloping roofs, the eaves height of which is a good half a meter below the eaves of the aisles. In front of the first yoke of the church and the Holy Trinity Sanctuary, pent roof surfaces were connected to the building walls with their ridges. In the area of the atrium there were gable roofs, the outer halves of which merged into the roof surfaces of the monopitch roofs. However, the model does not recognize the monopitch roof over the entrance portal of the church, but connecting fragments in situ testify to its existence (see photo). The corners of the almost square structure of the sanctuary also protruded half a meter above the pent roof ridge. Above that there was an eight-sided structure about two meters high, of which four opposite sides rose flush with the surface of the outer walls of the chapel. Between the four other sides of the octagon and the corners of the building, triangular building sections were created in the floor plan, which were covered by flat inclined half-pyramid roofs. The octagon that enclosed the inner dome was covered by a flat inclined octagonal pyramid roof, from the center of which a windowed round lantern protruded, which was covered by a conical roof. The eaves of the octagon were about the same level as those of the main church. In the Trinity Church, Oliba consecrated the altar of the "blissful and indivisible" Trinity around 1040 in the presence of many witnesses.
The monk Garsias did not mention the two bell towers that rose above the two ends of the transept arms. Perhaps they were not yet established around 1040 when he wrote the texts, but they were definitely so when Abbot Oliba died (1046). During a storm in 1839 the north-west tower collapsed, together with the north-west section of the transept arm and its chapel, so that today only the south-east tower is preserved. It is a wonderful example of the architecture of the premier art roman méridional . The masonry of the 11th century also shows this character, which differs significantly from that of the pre-Romanesque buildings. There was no longer the juxtaposition of infill walls made of quarry stone and the irregular masonry made of house stone. From then on, carefully cut rubble stones, which were piled up in a regular wall bond, predominated. The horseshoe arches have given way to round arches, the windows all have double bevels on their walls. Eventually, stone vaults increasingly prevailed over the former beam ceilings. The original side aisles of Michael’s Church were raised, windows and half-barrel vaults were added. Before that, the outside wall of the south aisle was reinforced on the inside. As a result, the former south portal, which was covered with a horseshoe arch, was closed. The window openings in the south and west walls of the central nave and the main portal no longer have their original shape. Only the small window in the gable of the facade is said to have retained its original shape.
St. James pilgrimage
The pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain began towards the end of the 11th century . Its greatest heyday took place in the first half of the 12th century, when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims moved south every year. The Way of St. James in France was formed from four main routes, accompanied by a network of numerous secondary routes. Numerous new churches, monasteries, hospices, hostels and cemeteries were built along these paths, and existing facilities were expanded to meet the new requirements. For a pilgrim church, above all, large areas of movement were needed for the numerous pilgrims , such as the ambulatory and side aisles , galleries, and as many chapels as possible for the presentation of relics and their veneration. Like many other very important monasteries, Cuxa was located on a heavily frequented byway of the many pilgrimage routes of the Camino de Santiago, which were concentrated in France north of the Pyrenees and led to the few crossings to northern Spain. This was the "Chemin du Piemont", which reached from Salses via Perpignan at the northern foot of the Pyrenees, mostly in valley bottoms such as that of the Têt , to the northern end of the mountain range. Cuxa is barely two kilometers from Prades, through which this pilgrimage route and the Têt pass. In any case, the expansions of the 10th century church and its convent buildings were essentially completed with the use of these important pilgrimage movements and could participate in the generous donation of the pilgrims. The canons soon had sufficient funds at their disposal to be able to afford the roofing of the cloisters and the sculpture of the cloister arcades, with the help of the best sculptors known at the time. This work only extended over the third decade of the 12th century.
14th to 16th century
The statue of the Virgin Mary, which was venerated in the crypt, came there later. Presumably it did not date before the beginning of the 14th century. At the end of the 16th century it was removed from the underground sanctuary and placed in the new chapel that was built in the 18th century at the eastern end of the chancel of the abbey church. During the revolution it came from Cuxa to "Corneillá de Conflent". More recently, the Conseil général of the Pyrenées-Orientakles department has acquired another Romanesque statue of the Virgin Mary so that the veneration of Our Lady in Cuxa can continue in the picture.
Probably towards the end of the 14th century to the 15th century, the pre-Romanesque horizontal wooden beam ceilings in the central nave and the choir area were replaced by Gothic ribbed vaults. The height of the choir was increased to almost the same height as the central nave. In the choir these vaults with two bays are still completely preserved. In the main nave, only the pointed belt arches are preserved, which then also supported the beam position of the slightly inclined gable roof. Their arches stand on cantilever consoles that are shaped like upside-down pyramids. Smaller cantilever consoles embedded on both sides of the arches, which still carry short fragments of the former cross ribs of the vault, are designed in a similar manner. The preservation of monuments under J. Puig i Cadafalch actually wanted to restore the original wooden beam ceiling, but there were no precise indications of the original condition. Therefore, the decision was made for the younger, but authentic construction.
Monastery life from the Renaissance to today
During the second half of the 16th century, the abbey church was partially redesigned according to the taste of the time (the Renaissance era ). The work probably started under Abbot Louis de Çargarriga (1561–1572) - his family coat of arms can be seen in the choir apse - was completed on July 15, 1592 with the renewed consecration of the main altar by the Bishop of Elne Fernando de Valdés Salas . For example, the “pillars” of the partition walls were redesigned in connection with the change from the horseshoe-shaped arches to semicircular ones. Other horseshoe arches, such as those in the transept arms, have been preserved. At that time, the aisles were divided into a total of six side chapels by walls running across the nave. A measure that should lead to even more altars, additional church services and relic worship and the related donation income. These subdivisions have been removed during the modern renovations.
In the meantime, however, the takeover by the abbots had led to a neglect of discipline in the monastery. There was no longer any question of community life after the division of the convent preludes among the professed monks (profession = religious vows ) and the conversion of offices into benefices . An attempt to return to the rule in accordance with the decisions of the Council of Trent (1545–1563) failed in the 17th century. In 1887, on the eve of the Revolution (1789), the Voyage pittoresque de la France stated that “... the clergy hardly pay any attention to community life; everyone has his share of the benefices of the chapter ..., owns his own house, household and servants and lives according to his taste in complete independence. They dress like secular priests and differ from them only by a very small scapular (part of a religious costume) ... "
The revolution put an end to this slow agony . A law of February 1790 forbade the recruiting of novices and secularized the goods of religious orders. The last monk of Cuxa was expelled on February 27, 1793 by revolutionaries who ravaged the monastery. It was sold as national property and was meant to learn about the dangerous coincidences that private ownership can bring.
In 1840 an owner had the plan to build a water basin on the site of the cloister to supply a forge with water. They were looking for buyers for all the marble. The Narbonne Archaeological Commission intervened, but then gave up. Finally, a deal was reached with a bathing establishment in Prades over a certain number of arcades. The others were torn down and dismantled into their individual parts.
The buildings that framed the courtyard of the cloister disappeared one by one or fell into ruins. The church was hardly any better. Its roof had already collapsed in 1835 and a violent storm caused the north tower, in which the tower clock and bells were located, to collapse in 1839.
Despite all this, monastic life was to find its way back into Cuxa: between 1919 and 1965 it was inhabited by Cistercians . They were followed by a small community of monks from the famous Catalan Benedictine Abbey of Montserrat , who continue to spiritually enliven the old Cuixa Abbey to this day. At the same time, the preservation of monuments, with the participation of the Pyrénées-Orientales department, set about closing the material wounds and rebuilding the ruins. The restoration work, which was preceded by archaeological investigations by Félix Hernández , J. Puig i Cadalfalch and Georges Gaillard , began in 1950. The plan for this was drawn up by Sylvain Stym-Popper , the architect responsible for the preservation of monuments. A first phase of work was completed in 1953, a second after 1970. The church was now used for worship again. The crypt was protected from further ingress of water and the capitals that remained in France were brought together and placed again in the large cloister.
Today's buildings
Dimensions*
(* Approximate dimensions taken from the floor plan and extrapolated)
Saint-Michel church
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Vierge de la Crèche chapel
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Saint-Trinité chapel
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Michaelskirche
Outward appearance
Longhouse
The three-aisled nave consists of a central nave, the longitudinal walls of which clearly protrude over the two aisles and the transept arms. Its pre-Romanesque masonry made of irregular stone blocks does not require any pillars or other structures. The central nave extends from the southwest facade to the northeast side of the transept and is covered by a gently sloping gable roof made of red hollow tiles, which protrudes slightly on the eaves on simple beveled cornices made of stone.
Like the original, the southeastern aisle extends from the southeastern arm of the transept to roughly the separation of the first two bays of the central nave. The northwest aisle extends from the northwest arm of the transept to the gable wall of the church facade. This length is not original and was only created when the new entrance portal and the difference staircase were built in the 1950s in the area of the first yoke.
Both side aisles are covered with pent roofs at the same inclination as the main roof, which also have the same eaves design. The naves are lit by rather small, arched windows; on the south-east side there are four windows facing the central nave, which stand up directly on the pent roof ridges. The aisle below open with three such windows just below the eaves. On the first floor of this outer wall, a portal covered with a horseshoe arch once opened, which was closed by the inner walling of a stabilizing wall in the 13th or 14th century, except for a niche that remained outside. At the southwest end of this aisle and in the partition of the first yoke, arched arcade niches have been preserved, which were once connecting openings to the central nave and to the side aisle, from the temporary extension of this aisle. The free-standing relics of a brick arcade arch as an extension of the facade wall also come from this.
The central nave has no window openings on the northwest side. In contrast, four small windows are cut out in the outer wall of the aisle just below the eaves, which correspond to those on the opposite side. This wall is hidden in the lower section by the south-east gallery of the cloister. In it, the new side portal opens in the first yoke of the church with the difference staircase behind it, which dates from the 1950s. At the northeast end of this wall, in the area of the third yoke, there was once a portal with a horseshoe-shaped arch, which is now bricked up on the outside and corresponded to the one on the southeast side. Obviously - as a substitute for it - a portal, which is rectangular on the outside, opens today in the fourth yoke. This reconstruction probably dates from the second half of the 16th century. In front of both portals there is a one meter wide platform, to which a staircase with eleven steps leads up on the northwest wall of the aisle and the southwest wall of the transept, all bordered by wrought iron railings.
The facade on the southwest side of the nave is just as plain as the other sides of the nave. The incline of the gable wall tops of about 45 degrees, compared to about 20 degrees of the gable roof surface of the ships, is particularly striking. However, the theoretical height of the gable was reduced to the middle when the bevels were made, by clearly cutting it off, and turned it into three pointed and equally high “pinnacles”. The middle one is slightly slimmer than the other two and is made of red brick masonry. A small, arched opening is cut out in it. A short distance below there was a slightly larger round arched window opening, but it was walled up again. This window is said to have retained its original shape. The center of the facade is dominated by two large, now arched, openings, namely the main portal and not far above the largest window in the church. Both openings are said to have originally been covered by horseshoe-shaped arches. The side gable edges are made of particularly large stone blocks, the long sides of which alternate. Shortly below the window parapet, a row of cantilevered flat stones runs on both sides, below which the gable of a pent roof connected over the entire width of the gable. Just above the height of the main portal, four console stones are walled in that supported the ridge purlin of the pent roof. These relics confirm that the side galleries of the atrium were connected by a gallery along the facade, which also served as a canopy to the main portal.
Transept and bell tower
Originally, the transept arms towered over the central nave on both sides in the area of the fifth bay by about 15.50 meters each. The ground floor belongs to the construction phase from the 10th century. The former two bell towers over the ends of the transept arms were obviously built in the first half of the 11th century, probably between 1040 and 1046. Since the north-west tower with its substructure on the ground floor and its chapel collapsed in 1839, the north-west transept arm has accordingly shortened. Today it stands on a slightly rectangular floor plan and is covered by a slightly inclined gable roof, with the same roofing and eaves design as the nave, but in its transverse direction. Their eaves heights are slightly above the pent roof ridges of the side aisles, their ridge height just below the eaves heights of the central nave. Its walls have no window openings.
The south-eastern arm of the transept has the same shape between the tower and the central nave as that on the north-western opposite side. The bell tower has a square outline of about 9 × 9 meters above the transept roof. After the reconstruction of the architectural model, the towers originally had a closed basement with a slightly larger outline, the offset of which was approximately at the level of the side eaves and the walls were barely perceptible. This base with its setback can only be seen in its upper parts on the northeast side of the tower. This also applies to the first floor of the tower, the height of which only appears there in full height. Today the tower base and more than half the height of the first floor of the south-east tower is stabilized by a base that was subsequently bricked up, steeply sloping to the outside, and only on the south-west, south-east and a short distance on the north-east side. The upper edge of the new base is a good meter below the parapets of the windows on the first floor of the tower. The simple masonry selected here made of irregular house stones, similar to that of the ships, and without any decorations - as with the tower - suggests that the builders were under heavy pressure, which was due to progressive cracks in the tower masonry. In the plan of the church one can also see internal reinforcements of the tower, which are dated to the second half of the 11th century. This suggests that the external ones also occurred during this time. It is not clear from the sources whether these stiffeners were also carried out on the north-west tower.
The tower is about three times its width above the original base. The structure of the tower sides was done in the Lombard architectural style , with six wall niches shallow. The vertical division is done by simple angular pilaster strips , wider ones on the vertical tower edges and half as wide in the middle of the wall. The horizontal division into three tower floors of different heights is taken over by two cornices made of three-part round arch friezes, combined with two toothed friezes above the first floor and a simple frieze made of bricks above the second floor. The third and top floor is closed at the top by a four-part round arch frieze. This is followed by a short piece of wall surface flush with the surface, crowned by five angular battlements, the spaces between which are slightly narrower than the battlements. Instead of the battlements, the architectural model shows gently sloping pyramid roofs, probably an older version. The battlements were a defensive upgrade before the 13th / 14th. Century. The first floor was about as high as the width of the tower. On each side of the wall, there are two small arched windows, each slightly offset inwards from the center of the niches. The second floor is about 2/3 as high as the first, but otherwise externally the same. The third floor is barely twice as high as the second. Because of the significantly higher proportion of opening areas, a bell cage should probably be accommodated here. Four arched twin arcades are cut out in each side of the wall. The outer edges of the openings are designed as angular setbacks. The arches stand together in the middle on a round column, which is equipped with an elongated capital. The sound openings are not arranged in the middle of the niche, but slightly offset towards the middle of the wall. A circular sound opening with the same diameter is cut out above the arches of the upper sound openings. Two stone gargoyles jut out on the southeast side of the tower, each arranged in the second arch (from the outside) of the frieze. They drain the accessible roof surfaces of the tower, behind the battlements.
The preserved tower is a wonderful example of the architecture of the premier art roman méridional . His masonry from the 11th century also shows this character, which differs significantly from that of the pre-Romanesque buildings. It consists of carefully cut rubble stones that are piled up in a regular wall bond. A twin pair of transept chapels was once attached to the northeast side of the transept arms, of which the northwesternmost has not been preserved since the north-west tower collapsed. The chapels stand on ground plans of one square each, which is closed by a semicircle. They are covered by gently sloping gable roofs, which are joined by half conical roofs, and the roofing and eaves design correspond to those of the ships. Their roofs reach just below the original setbacks of the tower base. In each of the chapel axes there is a small round arched window.
In the central axis of the church, the north-east wall of the central nave is connected to the choir , which has a rectangular floor plan and protrudes from the significantly lower pent roof of the ambulatory. The choir is slightly narrower than the central nave and was originally lower than this (see model). With the arrival of Gothic vaults towards the end of the 14th to the beginning of the 15th century, the height of the choir was increased almost to that of the central nave. Accordingly, the saddle roof of the choir is now an extension of the central nave roof. On the side walls of the choir, the inner division into two bays is marked by three buttresses. At the height of the transept eaves there is a slight setback between the buttresses, which is covered with a row of roof tiles. Above this, on each side of the choir, two gable walls rise up the width of the yoke, which together with small gable roofs running across the main roof appear like dormers. On both sides of the choir, an arched window is cut out in each of these walls, which illuminates the choir. The north-east gable of the choir is significantly widened by connecting the buttresses. A circular window is cut out in this wall above the roof of the chapel connection.
The lateral parts of the ambulatory are covered by pent roofs, the eaves of which are approximately at the height of the chapel eaves. The pent roof over the north-eastern corridor runs over the entire width of the choir, including the lateral corridors. Its ridge is level with the eaves of the lateral sections. On the north-eastern wall of the gallery, the two outer apsidioles are still preserved, on a semicircular floor plan, covered with a half-conical roof. Their roofs are still well below the eaves of this passage section. In the two side walls of the gallery two small arched windows are cut out.
A second Lady Chapel was added to the choir and its gallery in the axis of the church in the 18th century. For this purpose, the central apse of the ambulatory had to be torn down beforehand. Its floor plan consists of a square with a somewhat narrower semicircular choir apse. The square fits exactly between the two outer apsidioles. The walls above the square extend a good bit over the pent roof ridge of the side ambulatory, the north-west and south-east wall are led above the roof of the north-eastern aisle up to the choir wall. In each of these walls, a rectangular elongated window is cut out in the center of the chapel. Above the square outer walls of the chapel, the walls in the middle section protrude a little further, in which they form an octagon that encloses the inner dome. This octagon is covered by a round roof in the form of a truncated cone, which is curved in the shape of a bell in cross section. Triangular areas have been created over the corners of the square, which are covered with small roofs in the form of half pyramids. A saddle roof connects the two structures between the chapel and the choir. A round roof lantern protrudes from the ridge of the conical roof of the chapel, which is surrounded by eight columns that support a cantilevered metal roof. Four segment-arched windows can be seen between the pillars. The choir apse is covered by half a conical roof. The roofs of the chapel are steeper than those of the church, but like this they are covered with red hollow tiles.
Inside of the Michaelskirche
The building substance inside the church shows an unplastered pre-Romanesque natural stone masonry made of irregularly staggered house stones of different formats, as can be found predominantly on the outer component surfaces.
Longhouse
The three-aisled nave consists of a four-bay central nave, which is extended by a fifth between the transept arms, and two side aisles that extend over bays one to four. The pre-Romanesque architects were not yet familiar with the division into yokes of equal width, so that the arcades in the partition walls could not be aligned with the later subdivisions of the belt arches . Their arched openings are not arranged in the middle of the yoke, but rather border on the southwestern edge of the Gothic yokes. The once horseshoe-shaped arches of the arcades in the area of the side aisles were changed to round arches in the second half of the 16th century.
Of the Gothic cross-ribbed vaults built in towards the end of the 14th to the beginning of the 15th century in the five bays of the central nave, only the slightly pointed belt arches are preserved, the slightly trapezoidal arches of which are composed of wedge stones, which are about 2/3 of the wall height on cantilever consoles whose protruding parts have the shape of pointed, upside-down half pyramids. Of the significantly slimmer cross ribs, only the lower, short remnants remain, which stand on both sides next to the belt arches on similar but significantly smaller cantilever consoles. They have a trapezoidal cross-section. The belt arches have gussets made of plastered masonry, which are sloped on the top from the ridge to the eaves. They are pierced by five purlins each , which are flush with the sloping gussets on the top. On and across the purlins, there are rafters at close intervals, which in turn support wooden formwork. The wooden roof structure is impregnated in a dark brown shade.
The axis of the west wall of the central nave is pierced by a large rectangular portal opening with a round arch on the outside. A large arched window is cut out shortly above, through which the afternoon sun bathes the ship in golden light. The small, arched, walled-up window in the gable cannot be seen on the inside.
In the south-eastern partition wall, a round-arched window is cut out in the yokes two to four, the walls of which are greatly expanded inward, making it appear larger. The inner parapet edge extends a good bit below the cantilever consoles. Of the four “windows” that can still be seen on the outside, one has obviously been walled up on the inside.
The side aisles are covered by half barrel vaults, which after the installation of the Gothic vaults take on the function of buttresses and make them unnecessary.
In the south-east side aisle, three small round-arched windows are left open, the inner parapet edges of which are at the height of the vaults. In this ship was in the 13./14. In the 19th century, an additional wall was built in front of the outer wall, presumably to reinforce the wall to divert the vault loads from the central nave. As a result, the south-east portal with a horseshoe arch that originally existed opposite the third yoke has disappeared. The south-western end wall has a wide blind arcade at the bottom, the base of which is plastered. At the very top a rectangular window cuts the curve of the vault. At the northeast end a large arcade with a horseshoe-shaped arch opens into the transept.
The north-western side aisle is a little narrower than the north-western one, since a stiffening wall was not added later. As in the opposite aisle, a horseshoe-arched portal was cut out opposite the third yoke, of which today only a shallow niche bears witness. A new segment arched portal was subsequently opened across from the fourth yoke. The cause of this change does not emerge from the sources. In any case, it was created well before the installation of the new portal opposite the first yoke in the middle of the 20th century. The windows correspond to those of the opposite aisle, as well as the blind arcade on the southwestern head wall and the arcade in the northeast wall.
Transept with chapels
There is no separate crossing in front of the choir , as is otherwise known from Romanesque floor plans. This area is actually an extension of the central nave by another, fifth yoke. For the transept, only the two transept arms remain, the northwest and southeast. The first is missing its outer section with the associated chapel, which fell victim to the famous collapse of the tower. It is correspondingly shorter. The transept arms are covered across the nave by semicircular barrel vaults, the approaches of which lie just above the apex of the arcades to the central nave. The subdivisions of the transepts were made after their creation. In the second half of the 11th century, the walls under the south-east tower were reinforced on the inside by masonry, presumably together with the steeply sloping stabilizers on the outside.
A pair of chapels was once built onto the north-east wall of the transept arms, the south-east of which has been completely preserved. The chapels are each on the plan of a square, to which a semicircular apse adjoins. They are covered by domes in the form of a barrel, to which a half dome is attached. In the outer chapel, the originally larger arcade opening was walled up except for a small door. The inner chapels and their entrances have been preserved as originally. In each of them an arcade of almost the same width opens, which is covered by a horseshoe arch. A three- and five-step staircase bridges the height offset of the floors. In the axis of the apse there is a small round arched window. Another window connected the chapels with one another.
The entrances to the ambulatory between the choir and the chapels are almost the same height as the chapel arcades. The one meter wide opening is divided about halfway up by a horizontal lintel . The lower opening is rectangular, the upper one is covered by a horseshoe arch. You can see the half barrel vault behind it, which slightly cuts the upper opening.
The arcade of the “ Triumphal Arch ” is somewhat smaller on all sides than the central nave and its girders. The side edges form strong setbacks to the narrower choir room. The arch approaches are accordingly somewhat lower than those of the central nave.
Choir room
The choir stands on its originally rectangular floor plan. It is a little narrower than the central nave. It is covered by two groin vaults, which are separated by a narrow, weakly pointed belt arch. The shield arches are also slightly pointed. The cross-sections and supports of the belt arches and cross ribs correspond to those of the central nave. Their altitude is slightly lower than that of the ship. The cross ribs meet in a round, disc-shaped keystone. In each of the shield arches on both sides there is a slender round arched window, the walls of which are slightly widened. In the axis of the gable wall of the choir, a segmental arched doorway is cut out at the bottom. Just above it is a rather large, squat arched arcade, in which an organ was temporarily installed. Today a tall crucifix is placed in it on a sturdy base. You can see through it into the Marienkapelle. A good piece above the apex of the arch is a circular ocular with inwardly flared walls. to the right of the two lower recesses there is an ogival wall niche with a parapet halfway up the door. It was obviously used to display relics. Its background still shows remains of plaster painting, predominantly a diamond pattern , with textile folds curved several times in the lower area.
The current altar is the one that Abbot Garin had erected towards the end of the 10th century. It consists of a massive 2.25 × 1.37 meter white marble slab with a decorated edge on four hexagonal supports made of the same material. The plate is said to come from an ancient building in Narbonne and has many engravings of the names of believers from the 10th and 11th centuries. One is said to come from Abbot Oliba. The altar had meanwhile been removed, but was then rediscovered by Pierre Ponsich (1912–1999) and brought back to Cuxa.
Ambulatory with three apsidioles
From the former open passages between the choir and the chapels, a real ambulatory developed in two sections in the 11th century, initially the two galleries on the side of the choir, which are covered by half barrel vaults. The corridors open into the transept arms with two openings one above the other. The lower one is rectangular, the upper one is covered by a horseshoe arch. In the side wall, a small arched window opens above the vault. The corridors open into the second section of the corridor with round-arched passages: the north-eastern gallery with the formerly three very low apsidioles, in which altars once stood above the graves of martyrs. The gallery is divided into three almost equally wide sections by slightly narrower, arched arcades. Small round-arched windows are left open in the head walls and in the axes of the two preserved apsidioles. In the axis of the choir wall there is a segment-arched passage and above it a large round-arched arcade.
Lady Chapel
The second Marienkapelle of this monastery, the youngest construction phase of the church, is built exactly between the two outer apsidioles of the north-eastern passage section. It opens out of the ambulatory over a round arched arcade, in the width of the former central apseidole, but significantly higher. It stands on a square plan, which is followed by a semicircle, the diameter of which is only slightly smaller than the square. The cube-shaped room of the chapel is covered by a pendent dome , the arched gusset of which extends further downwards in the corners. The semicircular choir apse is covered by a half-dome shape. The central dome of the chapel has a circular oculus at its apex, above which a roof lantern rises and allows light to penetrate into the chapel. In addition, the chapel is lit through two slender rectangular windows in the two side walls of the chapel. The walls and dome of the chapel are smoothly plastered and painted white.
South-western extensions to the Michaelskirche
Crypt with the first Lady Chapel
The partially underground crypt is connected to the southwest by the first Lady Chapel or the nativity crypt. It is a circular space inscribed in a square of the outer walls and covered by an annular barrel vault supported by a central column and the surrounding walls. A semicircular apse, the rounded wall of which protrudes on the outside, faces northeast. You enter the chapel room in the southwest via a single-winged portal, and another door in the northwest leads to the other rooms of the crypt. The Marian Shrine is flanked in the northwest and southeast by two chapels, which are dedicated to the archangels Gabriel and Raphael.
To the south-west of the Lady Chapel, a gallery stretched across the width of the crypt, which was vaulted by a half-barrel and served as a vestibule through which the crypt is entered today. Between the Marian shrine and the foundations of the church facade, the rest of the crypt stretches across the width of the church, the floor of which is four steps higher than the three neighboring chapels. The large room is covered in three continuous semicircular barrel vaults in the transverse direction to the church, each of which rest on four wide arcade arches under which one cannot walk upright, each standing on three pillars. The vaults are divided into four sections by three wide belt arches. The middle barrel vault covers a passage under the atrium, which opens outwards on the southeast side with a large portal almost the width of the aisle and on the northwest side with a door to the cloister, to which a six-step staircase leads. In the wall under the church facade, two round-arched niches and on the outside two round-arched arcades open into small rooms under the extensions of the aisles of the church. There were probably some tombs in it.
Remains of the Trinity Chapel and the atrium
The former ground floor additions to the facade of the Michael’s Church, consisting of an atrium surrounded by galleries and the Trinity Chapel, have been largely destroyed. Fragments of the north-western side wall still stand, of the south-eastern side there are still parapet-high remains, which are divided on the outside by wall pillars, which were originally buttresses of the gallery. Only remnants of the large staircase in the southwest have been preserved, in the form of a narrow staircase in the middle of the chapel. The remains of the Trinity Chapel still reach about one meter above the level of the church. Today they are covered by a modern, generously glazed protective structure which is usually not accessible. Remnants of the wall to the cloister are still standing from the former north-west gallery of the atrium. Its north-western arcature was replaced by a closed wall.
The presumed appearance of these remains of the chapel, as well as the presumed reconstructions of the western additions to St. Michael's Church, especially in the form of an architectural model, are described above under "Romanesque additions and modifications: the work of Abbot Oliba".
Cloister, its demolition and reconstruction
About 75 years after the completion of the monastery buildings, the artistic activities in Cuxa began again with the construction of a large cloister. Its construction marks the birth of Romanesque sculpture in Roussillon in the 12th century. Unfortunately, the eventful events in its recent history have damaged its integrity to an irreparable extent.
Shortly before the revolution, it was still completely intact. Its condition at that time is known from a plan drawn up by Castelnau , which is now kept in the Archives nationales . This document is part of an extensive and exciting dossier that called for the abolition of the three Benedictine abbeys of Roussillon, as well as Cuxa, Saint-Martin du Canigou and Saint-Marie in Arles-sur-Tec .
The plan of the cloister, an irregular square, was predetermined by the existing buildings on which it leaned, particularly the northwest aisle, the northwest arm of the transept of the church and the old convent buildings to the west. The arches of his galleries stood on rows of simple columns that were occasionally reinforced by pillars. A widening of the east gallery was created at the east corner. Therefore, a measure had to be taken there against the irregularity in the floor plan, in which two groups of double columns replaced the normal simple columns. Overall, the plan of Castelnau speaks of 64 columns with their capitals, but the real number was 63. When the west gallery was rebuilt in 1952, it turned out that it did not consist of 14 columns - as in the plan - but only 13.
Engravings from the Romantic period , such as that of the Chevalier de Basterot (1824–1825) or that of Villeneuve (1835) show that the cloister slowly became a ruin after the church had been abandoned. Even if the south-east gallery appears to be quite complete today, the east gallery has largely disappeared. This sad impression is reinforced if one follows the negotiations that were carried out in 1841 between the owner of Cuxa and the archaeological commission of Narbonne. The aim was to dismantle the cloister and put it back up in the garden of the Archbishop of Narbonne. At that time only 37 columns with their capitals were in situ. At least the large fountain bowl in the middle of the cloister courtyard was left intact. Like all the sculpted elements of the pink marble cloister, it comes from Villefranche .
There is no doubt that the failed negotiations with Narbonne ultimately led to a decision that was to have fatal consequences. Not long afterwards, the remains of the cloister were dismantled, with the exception of nine arcades in the south corner, which remained until the end of the 19th century. The individual dismantled marble parts generally did not go a long way. As an exception, only two capitals made it to Aniane (Herault) , where they were to join the upper gallery of the cloister of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert in the park of the Justice of the Peace Vernière , which was almost completely rebuilt there. Most of the individual parts remained with private individuals in the nearby Prades or in the immediate vicinity.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the American sculptor George Gray Barnard , based in Moret sur Loing , decided to open an antique shop because he urgently needed money. At the end of 1906 and beginning of 1907 he began a real "hunt for cloisters" in the southern departments of France. He came through Montpellier, Perpignan and Prades and was completely thrilled: "When I am in these wonderful old villages, the old stones run in my blood". He wanted to share his enthusiasm with the directors of American museums, which he thought were potential customers.
On February 6, 1907, he wrote to Sir Casper Purdon, director of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, about the Romanesque sculptures of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa:
"After months of trouble, I have managed to acquire half of a rare treasure and I hold an option for the other half."
“It is a complete cloister from the 11th century. It is one of the most beautiful cloisters in France and comes from one of the oldest monasteries…. This cloister has a history like no other in France or in Europe; part of it is still in the abbey cellars. "
“This will be like a poem to the Americans who cannot come to Europe. He should bring me a nice sum ... "
“I think I make a total of $ 40,000 or $ 50,000 and it's worth it. If it were completely in situ in Europe, it could not be bought ”.
Élie de Comminges has used records from the Barnard archives in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to examine in detail the machinations of the sculptor-antique dealer with the support of the Mayor of Prades, August Bernard to appropriate the capitals and other marble sculptures from Cuxa. The individual operations are of different importance. First there is the sale of two simple capitals with columns and bases for 200 francs and a white marble fragment for 15 francs by Th. Doutres on January 12, 1907. The most extensive deal was made with a certain pellet: 15 capitals were involved , 9 columns and 9 arcades. Since Pellet had pretended to retract his word, the mayor of Prades Barnard offered to pressure the procrastinator and threaten him with legal action. Several times Barnard even went so far that he replaced the dismantled capital, which was supposed to decorate a pergola, for example, with a copy made of poured cement mortar.
A note with the inscription "Cuxa Cloister" in the Philadelphia Museum of Art summarized the list: 63 capitals, 27 column bases, 16 columns, 9 arcades and 5 ceiling tiles. “The whole thing had cost him about 16,000 francs. We know that the dollar was worth about 5.50 francs at the time. So Barnard spent less than $ 3,000 on a cloister. ”Under the same conditions, he had also appropriated the outer portal of the monastery.
In the end, however, he should have missed some elements, namely the eleven arcades that were set up in the baths of the city of Prades in the mid-19th century. On January 21, 1907, he negotiated this with the owner, Madame Balalude Saint-Jean . At that time he was ready to pay 5,500 francs, made a deposit of 500 francs when the contract was signed, and obliged him to replace the row of columns with pillars and arches made of brick. After waiting six years for the agreed payment, Madame Balalud de Saint-Jean asked Barnard in December 1912 to pay the purchase price and interest.
While Barnard was preparing to finally take possession of his purchase, the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Culture, Léon Bérnard, informed him that the buildings should be listed. Barnard did not take this seriously at first and replied to Horace Chauvet's press campaign in the newspaper L'Indépendent (Perpignan): “I cannot explain why the city is only now considering classifying the capitals as historical monuments. The press first had to make a racket for the state to consider taking this measure, which is by no means justified and inexplicable. Because this is not a monument or a building of historical value, but rather insignificant remains of the former Saint-Michel de Cuxa abbey, remains found in all gardens, all houses and in the whole area around Saint-Michel . I think I have to point out, to better justify my impression, that I did not buy the capitals, as claimed, to trade in them, but to make them available as models to young American artists. You want to learn a trade based on examples from French stonemasons, and America greatly admires this art. "
“If, contrary to my expectations, the French government insists on wanting to place these capitals under monument protection, I see myself compelled to assert all my rights and to demand the compensation that I am entitled to after I have committed myself to the matter and contracts with signed the workers. In addition, I will hand the matter over to my government. "
At the same time, Barnard was making secret preparations. He wanted to have the arcature sent from Prades to Moret and from there to New York.
Suddenly, however, he turned around: he submitted and gave the city of Prades the twelve pillars with their capitals, which were the subject of this dispute. Before they returned to Cuxa, they were placed in front of the south-west facade of the church. Barnard did not give up his hunt for Romanesque capitals in this area, but continued until after 1925.
In America, where he brought his purchases, in addition to the cloister of Cuxa also those of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert , Wonnefont and Trie , Barnard set up a museum on his estate in Washington Heights in New York. It opened its doors on December 14, 1914. “The Cloisters was born, because that's what he called the museum” . On July 6, 1925, John D. Rockefeller bought the collection for $ 600,000 and donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Until the construction that now houses the collection was completed, it remained in its original location, on the site of the Barnard heard. The new museum was inaugurated on May 16, 1936, three weeks after Barnard's death on April 24.
In 1952, Sylvain Stym-Popper exposed the floor area of the former cloister in Cuxa. It is eleven steps lower than the level of the church floor, so that in the 12th century, when the cloister was built, the foundation walls of the north-western aisle of the church might have to be exposed.
With the approval of the Commission des Monuments Historiques , the architect responsible for the restoration began to rebuild the arches separating the courtyard from the galleries in the south-east gallery, the preserved parts of which have been brought together in previous years thanks to the joint efforts of many like-minded people from different parts of France were. Since it was not always possible to determine where the parts were located in the original structure, and since some individual pieces, which certainly came from Cuxa, did not necessarily have to belong to the cloister, one cannot say that the extensive restoration work restored the original substance down to the last detail . The aim of these undertakings could essentially only be to effectively present the capitals in an appropriate, i.e. roughly original, height.
The arcades that were in the meantime in Prades were set up in the southeast gallery. This gallery has been completed with a matching capital from another location. In addition, two corner pillars and one intermediate pillar were built, according to the Castelnau plan. Finally this gallery was covered with a monk and nun tile roof.
In four new arcades, the east gallery encloses the two groups of twin arcades that originally had their place at this point and were found again by a happy coincidence. This is followed by a large gap up to the north corner, which has been rebuilt in order to clearly illustrate the dimensions of the cloister. For this purpose five arcades were built in the east gallery and three in the north gallery. Since not enough parts were available, these arcades could not be continued. All other existing capitals were used for the west gallery, which leans against the west wing of the old monastery building, probably the refectory, which was recently restored, the side wall of which dates from the 10th century. The arcatures here comprise two groups of six columns each, which are framed by pillars. A third group would have been necessary to close them completely.
At first glance, the rebuilt cloister of Cuxa gives the impression of a ruin, which was by no means intended. But you will soon be taught better by the abundance of new material and the clarity of the masonry.
In the southeast gallery along the church, you can best study the original style of the cloister of Cuxa. All capitals are made from the pink marble of Villefranche, cut from cubes 43 to 44 centimeters long. They are covered with large square abaki , which are only simply fluted on their underside and have no other jewelry.
The decorative motifs from the animal and plant world all have a basic structure that is based on that of the Corinthian capital , which means that they are all equipped with corner volutes, which are made of long, often unadorned shafts, sometimes also covered with net patterns or leaf decoration emerge. They often arise from triple festoons crowning a central cord. The corners and the center of the capital are marked by small cubes with the grimace of a monster or a human face with mostly rough features, full cheeks and a protruding chin.
Sometimes the floral element is limited to four large leaves in the corners, which serve as supports for various other motifs, such as lobed leaves and flowers in bas-relief, simple ornaments chiseled parallel to the edge. The doubled Corinthian wreath reappears on various occasions - the leaves then appear thicker, as if layered on top of each other. Cords of pearl decorate ribs or borders. The corner leaves now and then accommodate eagles, which spread their wings over the whole basket of the capital and enclose the bulge of the astragal (decoration between the column neck and capital) with their claws. The feathers are just as simple as the decorative leaves, in small pieces on the birds' bodies, long and narrow on the wings and tail. Various surfaces are structured with slanting, narrow grooves arranged one above the other, which create a subtle play of light and shadow. Finally, there are the squat monsters with disproportionately large heads on a bulging hull. The hind legs are angled as if they could not support the body weight. The grimacing head arouses particular attention, the large mouth of which is decorated with a surrounding cord and reveals a mighty, threatening set of teeth. This head is similar to that of the lions that are just about to devour their prey on another capital, in front of which only two front legs are hanging out of the corners of the mouth.
The lion also appears in other zoomorphic compositions. Sometimes the animals follow one another, represented in a continuous frieze, the body in profile and the huge head frontally with an open mouth and tongue hanging out. On another capital, this theme is carried out more skillfully and imaginatively, the transition from the head to the torso and their movement appear more natural. The curly mane has been replaced by long fringes that hang down almost to the legs. The narrow tongue tapers to a point.
Elsewhere, the subject is more complex. Four lions face each other in pairs, in such a way that two animals at each corner of the capitals are united by a common head. So you can see one head for two bodies, as Bernhard von Clairvaux had also observed. A similar motif is shown on another capital. Four lion bodies combine in pairs in a head on the opposite corners of a capital and overwhelm an animal that is not clearly carved out. The two other corners are each highlighted by a grimace, the grimace of which reveals large triangular teeth.
The unity of this series of capitals is indisputable, so that it can be ascribed to a single artist who could be called “Master of the Cloister of Cuxa”. It is a sculptor full of creativity who knew how to compose with great clarity and how to express himself clearly.
In the case of the two groups of double capitals that have been rebuilt at the south end of the east gallery, one is still moving on secure terrain, because they have returned to their original place. Due to stylistic criteria, they can almost certainly be assigned to the above-mentioned master. Here, too, vegetable and zoomorphic motifs are combined. The first pair depicts the frieze of heavily striding lions, alongside large leaves with pearled central ribs and smaller lobed leaves.
The second group combines the capital with the double ring frill made of dense foliage with the capital of the eagles, which spread their wings. The middle under the grooved abacus takes up, like a small console, a human mask with a full face and hair falling over the forehead.
In contrast, the four capitals at the east end of the former north gallery form a motley group. Two of them are each decorated with a row of large leaves and resemble other examples from the southeast gallery. They probably originally belonged to the cloister. Another capital with eagles, on the other hand, is made with a previously unknown coarseness. Finally, another lion capital introduces a really new and very characteristic style. Each of the animals, whether it leans its head back roaring or leans down, controls one side of the capital with diagonals. For the first time, the abacus is decorated with small veined leaves. This technique is also new: the paws of the lions were drawn with the drill bit and the band that surrounds the shaft ring was decorated in dots. In this reused piece, a style that was not peculiar to the cloister appears for the first time, which one could call the “second style of Cuxa”.
In the west gallery along the restored monastery buildings, elements of different origins have also been randomly placed next to one another. There are also remains of the former cloister, such as the first capital at the south end of this gallery. This is another version of a capital with a simple row of leaves. The second capital has the same shape, but in contrast to the previous one, its surface is completely unadorned. On the third capital, an outstanding piece, monsters and other figures are depicted. A naked figure with a cap on his head, crouches in an obnoxious position, as does the monkey next to it. It seems as if the theme "Daniel in the lions' den" has been translated into demonic terms. The body of the capital is traversed by numerous deep incisions. The large leaves on the fourth capital are unique in that their ribs are carved out with a drill bit. Accordingly, this piece belongs to the second style of Cuxa mentioned above. On the fifth capital, the motif of the prey devouring lions from the southeast gallery is taken up again. In addition, there is a human figure as a spectator. The drill bit was also used here, but the assignment to the “second style” is to be doubted, because an excessively excessive schematization gives the representation caricature-like features. On the sixth capital, the double ring frills made of narrow leaves are taken up again, but in a version that allows an inexperienced sculptor to be recognized. A different cut can be seen in the seventh capital: the eagles have been freed from their leaf border. On the eighth capital one again sees the four large leaves with the surface decoration of one of the most common motifs of the cloister. The ninth capital is similar to the fifth with the ribbon that serves as a border for the grooved basket. The tenth and last capital can be seen as a prototype of the seventh. A simple cylinder forms the lower part, which is fluted and lined with a double pearl cord. From this base emerge the shafts and leaf veins and a row of unadorned leaves. The description of the southwest gallery with a capital of winged lions that can also be attributed to the second style and with a very beautiful example, the fourth, on the subject of lions devouring prey. It is further developed here, because the depicted viewer becomes the doer: with a hint of laughter, he grabs the paws of the predator.
Only two capitals have been restored in the north gallery. These are the only "narrative" capitals in the entire complex. They belong to the second style of Cuxa and, like all other examples from this period, are 38 centimeters high and 36 centimeters long on the side, smaller than the other capitals of the cloister. The more independent and artistically more demanding of the two shows a very compact composition of four main characters placed at the corners and three secondary characters in the middle of three sides. Christ is depicted in a crouching rather than a sitting position. He wears a chasuble with ornamental borders and a skirt, the folds of which fall down on both sides of the triangle in the middle. He raises his right hand to bless, and in his left he holds the gospel. Its oversized head protrudes from under the cover plate and stands out from a cross-shaped nimbus . The hair and beard are short, the facial features are finely modeled, the nose and corners of the mouth are emphasized with the drill bit. The bare feet rest on the astragalus. Next to Christ, Peter holds a huge key in his right hand and a book in his left. At the other two corners there are angels with two pairs of wings each, one of which is crossed on the chest and the other is stretched over the capital. One of the two angels stands out because he has a beard and a very lively expression on his face. On the three sides of the center console, a small figure with protruding eyes and cheeks completely takes up the space available. The figures wear coats they are closed on the chest with agraffes . Some of them are interpreted as apostles. The abacus is decorated with bay leaves. The capital next to it is very similar in composition and style, but was probably created by a different artist. The execution is less personal and shows more clear drill bit marks. The posture of the figure of Christ is easier to understand here: two spherical structures worked with a drill bit indicate the ends of a cushion or seat. The figure of St. Peter has disappeared, as have the central figures. So all that remains around Christ are the angels, who here have a third pair of wings. One of them is holding a large censer. This depicts the classic motif of the Majestas Domini : Christ surrounded by cherubim and seraphim and adored by the choir of angels.
The first capital emphasizes the power of the keys and with it the glory of St. Peter. Jesus handed over the keys of heaven to the Prince of the Apostles and thus transferred the power to let in those souls who will participate in redemption. So the two capitals are not completely equivalent. If one assumes two hands, the accusation of unnecessary repetition could also be excluded. Such repetitions are acceptable for the purely decorative workpieces, but replicas are difficult to imagine for the “narrative” capitals.
With the exception of the capitals of the second style, the characteristics of those capitals that undoubtedly belonged to the original cloister are summarized here. They are all about the same size and worked without the use of a drill bit. Her subjects are limited to depictions from the animal and plant world and there again to a few motifs that have hardly been varied.
There is an important chronological reference to the dating of the cloister. This is a bas-relief, which was lost, although today, as it was still in the cloister, around 1860 by Louis de Bonnefoy, author of epigraphy was roussillonaise signed. This drawing was only made available to the public in 1952 by Anne de Pous . On a background that was divided by horizontal stripes, it depicted Abbot Gregory of Cuxa and Archbishop of Tarragona under a round arch. GREGORIUS was carved in retrograde letters in the left gusset and ARCHIEPISCOPUS in the right, on the book that the person represented in the Holding the left hand, the word ABBAS appeared . Abbot Gregory was elected Archbishop of Tarragona in 1137, but did not receive the pallium from Pope Luke II until 1144. He died in 1146.
A text by Abbot Cazes in the papers of Antoine Puigarri , an archaeologist from Roussillon, discovered, confirms that Abbot Gregory was the builder of the cloister. The text is a chronology of the early abbots of Cuxa. There you learn that Gregory held the office for 20 years, had the cloister built out of marble and finally became Archbishop of Tarragona. He had his work carried out in the third decade of the 12th century. In his honor the monks erected a kind of cenotaph (sham grave) in the cloister after his death .
Former gallery and its remains
In the 19th century the portal of the abbot's house - a building erected north of the monastery walls that still exists today - was covered with an arch made of carved marble, which is richly decorated with many motifs. It is believed that he was given this place in the second half of the 16th century, during the extensive renovations in the abbey. It stayed there until the restorations from 1950 to 1952. Then it was decided to reintegrate this arch decoration into the abbey without, however, returning it to its original purpose. A new entrance portal into the church was specially created for them, which opens onto the south-east gallery of the cloister, behind which an equally new and wide staircase made up of eleven steps bridges the difference between the floors of the cloister and the church as an extension of the north aisle. However, it was jointly assumed that it was a small part of the former gallery - a singers' pulpit - which was set up in the old central nave.
It is essentially the covering of a round arched portal opening, with an arch made of elongated, curved wedge stones which has a cantilevered cornice above its apex, which is supported by six cantilever brackets with sloping and slightly chamfered visible surfaces. Between the halves of the arch and half of the cornice, gussets extend, which are butted to the vertical outer edges. The arch ends stand on simple fighters with downward sloping and grooved visible surfaces, the apparent pillars close on the top. These are flat stone slabs that clad the soffits and the wall surface, which are led around the soffit edges. The outer sides of the cladding are wider and narrower on the wall side. The “pillars” date from the time the portal was built at this point. The sculpted parts have yellowish and white tones.
The long wedge stones have a scale pattern on the reveal side. On the front they are bordered on both sides by ribbons, partly smooth, on the inside also scaled, opposite they are also accompanied by narrow twisted cords. Between the ribbons, a pearl ribbon meanders over the entire arch, which grows out of the mouth of an animal at the beginning of the right arch and ends in a bound and framed palmette (leaf fan) on the left. Between the waves of the pearl ribbon and the outer ribbons there are various vicious animals that brace themselves with all limbs against the windings of the ribbons and try to move forward. These are, for example, voracious four-legged friends, such as lions or wolves, then winged four-legged friends with a predator's head, winged four-legged friends with a griffin head that bite each other's wing tips, long-necked birds of prey, all with open, biting mouths and gripping claws and their heads mostly over the Shoulders turned back.
The corner gussets each end at the bottom of the fighter with a small rectangle, which is patterned with upright scales. Above that are the most profound sculptures. On the right-hand side, a lion's face in wide format, looking at the viewer head-on with wide eyes. Under the snub nose, the mouth opens wide, surrounded by bulging lips with a slightly outstretched tongue. The mane of the head curls between the short auricles. The head protrudes from an almost square stone, the upper edge of which is decorated with a zigzag frieze. The drill bit was set in the pupils, the corners of the eyes, the nose, seven times in the mouth and in both ears.
The stone on the opposite left side shows the body of a monkey, which is crouching on the floor with legs wide apart and knees bent, and which is supported on its knees with equally spread and bent arms. The chubby face with the wide-open eyes appears frozen, the corners of its mouth pointing downwards. The small ears are spread wide outwards and the hair with a center parting appears as if combed. The drill bit was inserted into the pupils, the corners of the eyes, the ears, the corners of the mouth, and the corners of the angled limbs.
Above the animal sculptures, next to the lower arch stones, there is a stone each in the form of an irregular "square", with a slightly inwardly rounded beveled side. The other sides are horizontal and vertical. The stones are carved with reliefs, each showing a seraph , who is facing the viewer and almost completely fills the stone. The seraph is an angel with three pairs of wings, the front he holds crosswise in front of him and supports them with his hands, the middle point sideways down and the back sideways up. Below you can see the folds of the garment and the feet. The long hair on the head is combed flat sideways. The features seem to be smiling. The angels stand on horizontally protruding panels that demarcate the scenes from below. The front and middle wings are decorated with eyes, the pupils of which are marked with the drill bit.
The upper parts of the gusset are dominated by two almost square stones, which are only slightly cut on the inside by the arch stones. They contain reliefs with two evangelist symbols , namely the winged lion on the left for Mark and the winged bull on the right for Luke. Both rise in a round-arched arcade, the ends of which stand on strong pillars with carved capitals and simple bases. The arches are decorated with scales, the capitals and the gussets on them with palmettes.
The lion stands sideways to the right on the right hind leg and supports itself with the right foreleg on the capital. With the left he presents a book with his gospel. The left hind leg is shown in two positions, which clearly show a sweeping forward movement of the leg up to the column. Backward-pointing wings grow from his shoulders, underneath which the tasseled tail curves. He has opened his mouth wide, bares his teeth and looks up. Small ears protrude from the stringy mane. The smooth background is filled with diagonal grooves.
The bull stands on both hind legs and faces sideways to the left. Its head is twisted further to the left, showing its horned top. He supports himself on the capital with his left front hoof and in his right he is also holding a book. Obviously out of carelessness, the books of both evangelists are marked with the letters LVKAS.
In addition to the evangelist symbols towards the center of the arch, there is a significantly smaller stone each, in the form of an irregular square, the lower beveled side of which is slightly rounded inwards and thus adapts to the arch. Its edge is bounded by a simple band. Its surface is decorated with a bas-relief made of a twisted ribbon of pearls with three rolled ends, the background of which is filled with fanned palmettes.
The upper remaining areas of the gusset below the cantilever consoles are filled with elongated rectangular stones, all of which are decorated with square flowers with four petals each in the corners around a round ovary.
The sloping, slightly rounded visible sides of the cantilever consoles are decorated with similar flowers. The visible sides are delimited by narrow bands between the consoles and on the cantilevered cornice above. In between, sweeping, broader pearl ribbons wind their way, which occasionally roll up. The gaps are filled with spread palmettes.
After a lithograph from 1832, signed with the name Léger, there was a second similar arch that adorned the outer portal to the abbey. It was an extremely strange portal, completely crooked, made of collected, reused stones. The two other evangelist symbols were also found here, which completed those on the door of the abbot's house: the winged man for Matthew and the eagle for John.
In the end, it is all about the front of a gallery, which was comparable in shape and style to the gallery of Serrabone . Like these, it comprised three arcades, a richly decorated cornice with a balustrade, and a small number of figures in the corner spandrels: the four evangelist symbols, seraphim and a violinist. The central image was the Lamb of God, together with a third seraph on a marble slab. The rest of the facade was completely covered with decorative motifs. The pillars of the gallery were of course crowned by capitals. They too were scattered to the wind. On a plan of the abbey from 1779 there is a garden in the place of the former atrium in front of the church facade. Eight of the capitals appear to have served as elements of the arcatures that delimited this garden. Another capital, the one with the shape of the bearded angel, which is now in the cloister again, was used as a brick. Pierre Ponsich discovered it in the south-west wall of a building that was built on the foundations of the central part of the Trinity Chapel.
Eventually, sculptures were regrouped in the 20th century to the benefit of both the Cuxa Monastery and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. In December 1972, the American Museum agreed to part with a portion of the sculptures. Three years later, in November 1975, 25 boxes with marble workpieces from his collection went on a journey to France. These included 27 parts of the gallery. Unfortunately, difficulties at the last minute prevented the transport of eight more boxes containing eleven important parts, including the relief plaque with the lamb and the seraph.
Pierre Ponsich had made a complete inventory of the marble parts that should have belonged to the gallery in Cuxa. Among them were nine columns, which today have probably been re-erected in the cloister, and the same number of column bases, 27 cylindrical parts of groin vaults, four keystones and finally eleven capitals, which because of their dimensions and their particular style, the second style above by Cuxa can be clearly identified. Some of these elements are exhibited in the originally pre-Romanesque, now restored room next to the west gallery of the cloister.
The question remains whether some of the capitals from the second style of Cuxa - especially the second depiction of Majestas Domini, in which only angels are depicted in addition to the figure of the Savior - do not come from another component, perhaps from a portal that would have been comparable to that of the portal of the Church of the Prieuré de Serrabone .
At the instigation of Pierre Ponsich, excavations were carried out in 1952. The foundations of three arcades of a gallery were discovered in the middle of the nave. Unfortunately, the search was not continued to the point where the exact location of the wall of the choir screen could have been determined. So one still has to ask oneself whether the gallery formed a rood screen, as in Serrabone, which closed off a monk's choir facing the south-west in front of the choir apse, or whether the gallery was rather the eastern end of a coro alto common in Spain , such as for example in Saint-Jean le Vieux in Perpignan, which occupied the rear part of the church and on which the monks' choir stalls were.
Pillar of the gallery?
In Léger's lithograph from 1832, the arch, which was more poorly than right, made up of seven wedge stones carved with palmettes, rested on two figure pillars. These pillars with the figures of the apostles Peter and Paul have been preserved in Cuxa. When the new church portal was built from parts of the former gallery, they were placed in front of the wall on both sides.
The portraits are fitted into a rectangular field on the front of the pillars, which is enclosed by a frame of stylized leaves, and are worked in extremely flat relief. Neither the upper arms, which are leaned close to the body, nor the forearms, which are shortened in perspective, or the hands protrude from the surface of the pillar. The latter, when they hold a book, are only indicated by the bent fingers, while the other hand is brought into a plane with the relief surface by an unnatural rotation, be it with Paul in a blessing gesture or, as in the case of Peter, to hold the big symbolic key. The feet are shown vertically in plan view, as if the figure were swimming or floating, and do not protrude above the frame or from the flat surface. The robes have a purely decorative role. This is particularly evident in the pearl braids, the zigzag ribbons and the folds laid flat.
This strictly integrated frontality is only broken once: the heads of the figures, enclosed by large nimbs, protrude from the level of the block, as if the artist wanted to concentrate the viewer's attention on these very heads. That was probably his intention, because he varied physiognomy and expression and thereby gave the figures personality. This even survived despite the willful damage. Peter is shown with a round face, short but full hair and a similarly thick beard. His eyes are small and his gaze is piercing. For his part, the Apostle of the Meek is almost bald and his beard falls in regular curls. The protruding cheekbones arch over the cheeks of an ascetic .
About half a century earlier, towards the end of the 11th century, the Romanesque artists of Moissac had developed a style in the representation of the human figure based on a very similar spirit. In the cloister of this abbey in the Tarn - Garonne department, the nine apostles, with them Abbot Durand, are reduced to a projection on the plain, adorned with a surface decoration borrowed from miniature painting. As in Cuxa, but earlier, this stylization knows how to avoid too great an abstraction by trying to give personality to the figures represented. This is particularly evident in the faces. In Moissac there was even greater creative freedom, while the characters from Cuxa are already committed to a formula.
The decoration of the two pillars is completed by a frieze on the sides facing the opening. In the case of the pillar with St. Peter, it is a series of intertwined circles in which two griffins, a lion and an owl are enclosed. The motif is new, but the style corresponds to that of the front surfaces of the gallery. In the case of the Paulus pillar, the comparison with the gallery becomes even more obvious, because here one of the motifs of the arch of the gallery can be found, namely the tendril ornament "inhabited" by lions and griffins. One is therefore tempted to attribute these two apostolic pillars to the gallery of Cuxa. Perhaps they were the outer, northwest and southeast pillars of the northeast face. The talent of the master who created them, however, far exceeded the skills of his collaborators on the facade and especially those of the creator of the Matthew figure returned to Cuxa. Although the general principles of composition and the way the marble is cut are the same, the evangelist lacks the nobility that characterizes the two great figures. Their own design features can be found on the capital that Pierre Ponsich had rediscovered on the Trinity Church: This too glorifies St. Peter, who held the key power.
literature
- Xavier Barral i Altet: Els mosaics medievals de Ripoll i de Cuixà (= Scriptorium Populeti . Band 4 ). Monastica, 1971, ZDB -ID 1058060-8 .
- Marcel Durliat : La Sculpture romane en Roussillon. Volume 1: Les premiers essais du XIe siècle, les ateliers de Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa et de Serrabone. 2 e édition, revue et corrigée. Édition de la Tramontane, Perpignan 1952.
- Marcel Durliat: Romanesque Roussillon . Zodiaque-Echter, Würzburg 1988, ISBN 3-429-01163-9 , pp. 21-60 .
- François Font: Histoire de l'abbaye royale de Saint-Michel de Cuxa (Diocèse de Perpignan) . J. Comet, Perpignan 1881 (reprint. Screws, Rennes-le-Château 1989, ISBN 2-905371-14-5 ).
- The pre-Romanesque church (Xth century), the crypt and the bell tower (XIth century), the cloister corridor and the gallery (XIIth century) . Self-published by the Abbey, Cuxa 1984 (architecture guide).
Web links
- Website of today's Benedictine monastery
- Association Culturelle de Cuxa - History and Restoration (French)
- History and architecture of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa (French)
Individual evidence
- ^ Marcel Durliat: Romanesque Roussillon. 1988, pp. 21-24
- ^ Marcel Durliat: Romanesque Roussillon. 1988, pp. 27-28
- ^ Marcel Durliat: Romanesque Roussillon. 1988, pp. 28-51.
- ^ Julia Droste-Hennings, Thorsten Droste : France. The southwest. The landscapes between the Massif Central, Atlantic and Pyrenees. DuMont-Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7701-6618-3 , p. 25.
- ^ Marcel Durliat: Romanesque Roussillon. 1988, pp. 24-27.
- ^ Marcel Durliat: Romanesque Roussillon. 1988, pp. 52-58
- ^ Marcel Durliat: Romanesque Roussillon. 1988, pp. 58-59
- ^ Marcel Durliat: Romanesque Roussillon. 1988, pp. 59-60
Coordinates: 42 ° 35 ′ 41.4 " N , 2 ° 25 ′ 0.6" E