Sant Joan de les Abadesses

Municipality of Sant Joan de les Abadesses
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Catalonia
Province :	Girona
Comarca :	Ripollès
Coordinates	42 ° 14 ′ N , 2 ° 17 ′ E Coordinates: 42 ° 14 ′ N , 2 ° 17 ′ E
Height :	773 msnm
Area :	53.7 km²
Residents :	3,232 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	60.19 inhabitants / km²
Municipality number ( INE ):	17167
administration
Official language :	Castilian , Catalan
Mayor :	Elisabet Regué i Pujol
Website :	www.santjoandelesabadesses.com

Town View (2008)

Sant Joan de les Abadesses ( Spanish: San Juan de las Abadesas ) is a Catalan municipality in the province of Girona in northeastern Spain . It is in the Comarca of Ripollès .

geography

Geographical location

The place is in the Pyrenees near the French border just before the city of Ripoll . Sant Joan de les Abadesses had 3232 inhabitants on January 1, 2019 and is located in the valley of the River Ter , but at an altitude of 775 meters above sea level. After Ripoll, it is the second most important place in the Comarca Ripollès .

politics

The 2007 local elections resulted in the following distribution of seats in the local council:

PSC : 6 seats
ERC : 3 seats
CiU : 2 seats

history

The history of the place is closely linked to the monastery. Existing documents mention the place since the time the Moors were driven out. But there are indications that they had already resided here in the years 717/718. The then Count of Barcelona Wilfried the Hairy ( Guifré el Pelós ) began to settle the valley and founded a nunnery around 880, into which the daughters of the best families in the country moved. His daughter Emma became the first abbess of the Benedictine abbey. Abbesses ran the monastery until 1017. Then they were accused by the Pope of rioting and expelled.

The place named after the abbey (" Sant Joan ") formed around the monastery and also referred to it in its name affix (abadesa = abbess).

In the 11th century the religious community was dissolved. The church of the monastery went through several changes of ownership and even served as a cathedral for a short time. At the end of the 16th century the minster became a collegiate church.

After the first Benedictine women came Augustine and Benedictine monks who improved the image of the monastery again. They set up archives that also contain the songs of the troubadours, which document the culture of that time.

The monastery church

Layout

Most of the current building dates from the first half of the 12th century. Very different style influences permeate each other. The ambulatory goes back to French models, a design that occurs very rarely in Catalonia.

The sculptural design of the apses

The outside of the choir is visibly richly decorated. The capitals of the outer apse show u. a. oriental influences - elephants are depicted. The suggestion for this could come from southern Spanish Islamic sources. Engraved characters unmistakably refer to Arabic inspiration, including the chandelier in the interior.

The themes of the capitals are partly primeval atavistic, for example two bodies unite in a bearded head etc.

The "Santissimi Misteri"

The outstanding work of art in the interior is the large carved group of the Descent from the Cross from 1251, the “Santissimi Misteri” by lay brother Dulcetus. This type of representation was common in Spain since the 12th century. Here we have the late climax of the genre before us. Characteristic for this direction of Spanish Romanesque sculpture is the realistic visualization of the heroic plot, the rejection of all display. For centuries there was a host in the forehead of Christ.

literature

Allemann, Fritz René and Xenia v. Bahder: Catalonia and Andorra. Cologne [1980] 4th edition 1986. (DuMont Art Travel Guide), p. 127, fig. 29–31
Barral I Altet, Xavier (ed.): The history of Spanish art. Cologne 1997, p. 141

Town twinning

Le Palais-sur-Vienne in the Haute-Vienne department , ( France )

Web links

Commons : Sant Joan de les Abadesses - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Topographic map and data of the Generalitat of Sant Joan de les Abadesses (PDF file; 743 kB)

Individual evidence

↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).
^ Ajuntament de Sant Joan de les Abadesses Eleccions Municipals 2007: resultats ( Spanish ) gencat.net. Archived from the original on June 29, 2007. Retrieved October 20, 2019.

[1] Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).

[2] Ajuntament de Sant Joan de les Abadesses Eleccions Municipals 2007: resultats ( Spanish ) gencat.net. Archived from the original on June 29, 2007. Retrieved October 20, 2019.