The Casbas Monastery, also known as the Monastery of Santa Maria de la Gloria, is in Casbas de Huesca, a municipality in the

province of Huesca Huesca ( an, Uesca, ca, Osca), officially Huesca/Uesca, is a province of northeastern Spain, in northern Aragon. The capital is Huesca. Positioned just south of the central Pyrenees, Huesca borders France and the French Departments of Haute-Ga ...

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

, Spain. A

Bien de Interés Cultural A Bien de Interés Cultural is a category of the heritage register in Spain. The term is also used in Venezuela and other Spanish-speaking countries. The term literally means a "good of cultural interest" ("goods" in the economic sense) and inclu ...

(

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

), it was established in 1173 by Countess Oria de Pallars (or Aurea) with the support of her husband

Arnau Mir Arnau (or Arnal) Mir (died 1174) was the Count of Pallars Jussà from 1124/6 until his death. The '' Memoria renovata'', which dates to the reign of Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona over the Kingdom of Aragon, contains a genealogy of Arnau Mir. ...

, Count of Pallars Jussà, between 1124 and 1174, and the

Bishop of Huesca The Diocese of Huesca (Latin, ''Oscensis'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church located in north-eastern Spain, in the province of Huesca, part of the autonomous community of Aragón. The Diocese of Huesca ...

, Esteve de Sant Martí. Bishop Esteve had previously been the abbot of the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

Monastery of Poblet Poblet Abbey, otherwise the Royal Abbey of Santa Maria de Poblet ( ca, Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Poblet), is a Cistercian monastery, founded in 1151, located at the foot of the Prades Mountains, in the comarca of Conca de Barberà, in ...

from 1160 until 1165. The first abbess was Isabel, who ruled over the 30 noblewomen who entered the community until 1182. The abbess of Casbas had civil and criminal jurisdiction over her lands beginning in 1178. The

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

community of women formally came under the auspices of the Cistercian order in 1196, recognized as such by Pope Celestine III. Architecture The Church of Santa Maria de la Gloria was consecrated in 1208. The church was built in a late Romanesque style with a barrel vault over the nave. The Latin cross plan ends in an extended apse with two side chapels. It has an octagonal cupula over the crossing. The cupula was likely constructed under the patronage of abbess Jerónima de Azlor (1609-1615). The Romanesque portal of the church (c. 1200), off of the south transept, has a Chrismon on the tympanum with 11 archivolts extending from it. The cloister with its ogee arches dates from the 14th or 15th century. The chapterhouse includes two floor tomb relief slabs from the 14th century. It was likely intended to be the familial pantheon for the Pallars-Jussá. In 2004 the monastery was transferred to private hands. It had only had two periods of closure prior to that, during the revolution of 1868 and during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. A surviving altarpiece of Saint Ursula (c. 1300) can be visited at the

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (, English: "National Art Museum of Catalonia"), abbreviated as MNAC, is a museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Ma ...

(cat. number 004377-000). References

References

{{Coord, 42.1564, -0.1400, type:landmark_region:ES, display=title Buildings and structures in the Province of Huesca Monasteries in Aragon Cistercian monasteries in Spain Cistercian nunneries Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Province of Huesca

Further reading

References