Sant Quirze de Colera
Sant Quirze de Colera is a Benedictine abbey in northern Catalonia that has been mentioned in documents since the 10th century . The abbey belongs to the municipality of Rabós , which is located in the Alt Empordà in the province of Girona .
The abbey is an architectural ensemble made up of the Basilica of Sant Quirze , various outbuildings surrounding the cloister , a watchtower and walls for defensive purposes, the Church of Santa Maria de Colera and the remains of a former hospice . Their architectural style can be assigned to the early Romanesque and the Catalan Romanesque . Mainly rubble stones from existing shale were used .
The abbey was declared a Monument Historicoartístic Nacional on June 3, 1931 with the number RI-51-0000562 and included in 1993 under the Bé Cultural d'Interès Nacional .
location
The Benedictine Abbey of Sant Quirze de Colera, Spanish San Quirico de Colera , is located in the Natural Park of the Serra de l'Albera ( Paratge Natural d'Interès Nacional de l'Albera ), about 5 kilometers north-northeast of Rabós. It is located at 176 meters above sea level on the Rec de la Perdiu , a torrent that flows down from the 754 meter high Puig d'en Jordà . The Font de la Convent , 100 meters further east, is a natural spring . With its apse, the basilica faces the east-north-east of the Puig. The GR 11 long-distance hiking trail passes near the abbey .
history
Judging by the latest excavations, the predecessor church of Sant Quirze Abbey dates back to the 8th or 9th century. As early as 782, the Carolingians began to set up the Spanish mark to protect against the Moors' campaigns . This process came to an end with the conquest of Barcelona in 801. The individual Catalan counties later emerged from the market.
In 927 Count Gausbert von Empúries enfeoffed the Benedictines with the lands around Sant Quirze. The abbey was completed in 935 and was consecrated by Bishop Guigo (Guiu) of Girona . Over the years the abbey has been gradually enlarged and renovated. Their prosperity can be measured by the fact that their possessions extended over the entire Empordà and into Roussillon .
In 1123, however, the veneration of the Holy Quirze (Cyriacus), Andrew and Benedict had come to a standstill. The abbey was therefore consecrated a second time by Bishop Berenguer Dalmau from Girona in the presence of Bishops Arnaud of Carcassonne and Peter von Elne , and the consecration of the neighboring church of Santa Maria de Colera took place at the same time. This spiritual renewal was accompanied by a territorial consolidation and an expansion to the north. In the 13th century, several papal bulls assured the abbey of their legal rights, for example through Pope Honorius III. in 1219 and by Pope Innocent IV in 1246. Nevertheless, she suffered in connection with the crusade against Aragon under the troops of Philip III in 1285 . and in 1287 under the troops of Jacob II. Under the abbot Berenguer de Vilatenim (1297 to 1320) the abbey was able to recover from the war damage it had suffered. During this period of renewed splendor, a new external fortification was built in 1303. A catastrophic setback came in 1348 with the plague , which wiped out much of the local population. Nevertheless, the monastic community survived.
As early as the 15th century, the abbey began to show signs of decay, as the abbots no longer resided in the abbey and the discipline had therefore loosened drastically. In 1592 the independence of the Abbey of Sant Quirze ended, as it was merged with the Abbey of Sant Pere de Besalú by Pope Clement VIII . The ruinous condition of the Abbey of Sant Quirze is documented as early as 1690.
In 1835 the community of Sant Pere de Besalú died out in the course of the disamortization in Spain and all goods were put up for auction. The Abbey of Sant Quirze de Colera with all its accessories and lands was bought by the Ampurdan general Ramón de Nouvillas and remained in the possession of his descendants until 1994, who then bequeathed them to the municipality of Rabós for the symbolic amount of 1000 pesetas.
Building
basilica
The east-facing basilica of the abbey has three aisles and consists of a main nave and two transepts (transepts), with the two wings of the transepts only a quarter as long as the main nave. A barrel vault sits on the main nave and the crossing , while the aisles and the apses are closed off by quarter spheres. The naves are separated from one another by cross-shaped pillars, which, via pilasters, support the toroidal ceiling support arches that meet in the middle.
On the east side of the choir, three semicircular apses have been preserved - one apsidiole each on the transepts and a high central apse on the main nave, which is adorned with a frieze of Lombard arches on the outside . Inside the church, the central apse also reveals Lombard arches and opens towards the main nave with a stepped double arch. This arrangement was also chosen in the smaller northern apsidiole. For a change, the southern apseid has a lower arch, which was only used later. A rectangular chapel with a pointed vault was later added to the outside area between the central apse and the southern absidiole, which communicates with the interior by means of a pointed arch.
As for the generally elongated, narrow and small window openings , each apse has a central arched window, the reveals of which are double beveled. Two windows of the same type are located in the crossing area, one in the south wall and one in the extreme northwest. A small round window made of wedge-shaped stones is attached above the supporting arches of the central apse.
The church has three entrances, one on the north side, one on the west side and one on the south side. The latter is worked as a round arch with neatly hewn wedge stones and establishes the connection to the cloister ; it now also serves as the main entrance to the building. The north entrance is walled up. The west entrance is closed off by stepped double arches above a mighty lintel. The tympanum field thus formed is filled with stones hewn at right angles. A larger arched window with a double beveled soffit sits above the door. It is flanked to the right and left by two similarly designed but much smaller openings.
The westwork on the main nave was rebuilt in the 12th century. It is closed by an incomplete bell wall , of which four pillars are still present and the fifth is stumped. The arches are missing. The exterior facades are generally unadorned, only the apses are decorated with Lombard arches.
The building blocks used were mainly existing slates, which were only roughly cut to medium size and then walled up in rows. In the north and south walls , the herringbone pattern of the opus spicatum was used as a wall technique, which alternates with small stones walled in the usual row style.
In front of the main facade and on the south side next to the crossing, the remains of a primitive pre-Romanesque predecessor church can be seen. They consist of a stone staircase, a first arch approach and the remains of the foundation of an apse (next to the current central apse).
Cloister and courtyard
Only a wing with two double arcades is now preserved from the former cloister, which is built against the south wall of the basilica and in the west against one of the farm buildings. Each double arcade consists of two round arches, which are formed by stones tapering to the shape of a wedge. The double arcades are separated from each other by a square pillar. The arches each rest on a central column with a large capital . On the east side of the inner courtyard there is a herringbone wall fragment that belongs to one of the former outbuildings.
To the west, the inner courtyard is closed off by a rather stately, rectangular building with a pointed barrel vault, the floor of which is sloping towards the outside. The southern section has collapsed. The main facade of this building is on the courtyard side, with two beautifully crafted round arched portals at the bottom and two windows with double sloping soffits on the floor above. The west facade, framed by an enclosure wall, is somewhat widened at the base of the wall and has a large loopholes . The west side also shows two window openings with a double sloping reveal, which are almost identical to those on the inner courtyard side. The building was built in a row with well-hewn stone blocks. This is likely to be the former refectory or dormitory .
Other buildings
On the south side of the inner courtyard is another building which has been identified as the abbot's house , but which at the same time probably served as a farm building. It is divided into three adjoining components with different roof pitches that take on roughly rectangular dimensions overall. The building is based on sloping ground and is divided into a basement and an upper floor. Its main facade faces south towards the enclosure. A round arch, flanked by a very large loopholes, leads to the basement. The upper floor is illuminated by two rectangular windows. The northeast side of the building has a wide stone vault in the basement and inconsistent window openings on the upper floor, some of which are made of bricks. There is also a herringbone wall that belongs to the previous building from the 10th century or earlier.
Remains of the former outer wall can be found behind the apse. In the extreme northeast of this wall, some loopholes are embedded. Another wall runs parallel further south. Both wall sections together form a fence between the abbey buildings and the square tower that rises about 30 meters further east. The tower has several loopholes and its window openings are on different levels. Its roof has now been lost. Excavations on the north-west corner of the basilica have uncovered further wall remains with integrated loopholes in recent years.
In the north-west of the abbey complex there are building remains on a slightly higher site that are ascribed to a former hospice. It is a very dilapidated, rectangular building that has lost its roof. The stones used are not hewn and were built with a lot of lime mortar. In the northeast there is another outbuilding, which now functions as a bar / restaurant, but previously only served as a pen.
The church of Santa Maria de Colera is about 100 meters further west .
Excavation and renovation work
Although Sant Quirze Abbey was listed as a historical monument in 1931, the farmers in the neighborhood continued to use it as a stable and storage facility. This practice did not end until the excavation and restoration work began in 1979. In the course of these renovations, high quality Romanesque paintings from the 12th century were discovered in the southern apse arch . In the refectory on the west side, excavations in the floor uncovered anthropomorphic graves , which made it possible to date them back to the 8th century. The remains of a third church or cella also appeared here. Between 1983 and 1984 there was another intervention in which, among other things, a new entrance staircase was installed and ancillary buildings were consolidated. Another excavation took place between 2004 and 2005, and the access road from Rabós was repaired at the same time. Because of the work, the abbey complex was closed to the public for many years, but it has been possible to visit again since 2007. Concerts are held here in summer.
Photo gallery
View from the east
Central apse
South transept
Grave in the floor of the refectory
Remnants of paintings in the right apse
opus spicatum
Remains of the previous church
Source area
General view of the abbey
Santa Maria de Colera
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literature
- Bibiana Agustí i Farjas, Dolors Codina i Reina, Didier Delhoume, Imma Lorés i Otzet and Mireia Teixidor i Murlà: Sant Quirze de Colera entre els segles XII i XIV: d'edifici religious a fortificació militar . In: Annals de l'Institut d'Estudis Empordanesos . tape 31 , 1998, pp. 111-132 .
- Joan Badia i Homs: L'arquitectura medieval a l'Empordà, 2a ed., 2 vols. vol. II-B. Diputació Provincial de Girona, Girona 1985, p. 156-178 .
- Dolors Codina i Reina, Mireia Teixidor i Murlà and Bibiana Agustí i Farjas: Primers resultats de l'excavació del monestir de Sant Quirze de Colera . In: Tribuna d'Aqueologia (1997-1998) . S. 145-163 .
- DDAA: El Meu País, tots els pobles, viles i ciutats de Catalunya volume 3 . Edicions 62, Barcelona 2005, ISBN 84-297-5570-5 .
- Enciclopèdia Catalana: Catalunya Romànica, 27 vols. vol. 9. Barcelona (1984-1998).
- Albert Pibernat i López: Sant Quirze de Colera: límits territorials . In: Annals de l'Institut d'Estudis Empordanesos . tape 37 , 2004, p. 85-95 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gironella Garañana, Joaquín: El histórico ex-Monasterio de San Quirico de Colera . In: Revista de Girona . 1971, ISSN 0482-5675 .
- ↑ Direcció General del Patrimoni Cultural de la Generalitat de Catalunya: Monestir de Sant Quirze de Colera . In: Pat.mapa: arquitectura .
Web links
Coordinates: 42 ° 24 ′ 58 ″ N , 3 ° 3 ′ 32 ″ E