The Monastery of Sant Joan de les Abadesses is a monastery in the comarca of Ripollès,

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

, northern Spain. Until the year 945 it was the only female monastery in the area.

History

The monastery was founded in 885 by count

Wilfred the Hairy {{Infobox noble, type , name = Wilfred , title = Count of Barcelona , image = Wilfredo el Velloso 01.jpg , image_size = 150px , caption = Statue in Madrid, L. S. Carmona, 1750–53 , alt ...

, who destined it to the education of his daughter Emma, who later became the first abbess. Wilfred had previously founded the monastery of

Santa Maria de Ripoll The Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll is a Benedictine monastery, built in the Romanesque style, located in the town of Ripoll in Catalonia, Spain. Although much of the present church is 19th century rebuilding, the sculptured portico is a renown ...

for his son Radulf. The church was consecrated on 24 June 887 by the

bishop of Vic The Roman Catholic Diocese of Vic ( la, diocoesis Vicen(sis)) is a diocese with its seat in the city of Vic in the ecclesiastical province of Tarragona in Catalonia, Spain. Its cathedral is a basilica dedicated to Saint Peter. History A dioc ...

. In 1017, by request of

Bernard I of Besalú Bernard (''Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "brav ...

, a papal bull suppressed the nunnery; Bernard acquired them, and brought into the monastery (now part of the bishopric of Besalú) a community of monks. From 1083 to 1114 it was under the Monastery of St. Victor of

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, who sent here a community of nuns of Greek origin. In 1114 the intervention of the Pope allowed a community of Augustinian canons to take possession of the monastery in a definitive way. Ruled by local abbots until 1484, later it was under commendatary abbots. In 1592 the monastery was secularized and converted into a simple collegiate, suppressed in 1856. It was declared a Historical Monument in 1931.

Architecture

The current church building date to the 12th century. In 1428 an earthquake destroyed the dome and the bell tower, and damaged the church, which was largely restored. The church has a single nave, included into a wide transept. The latter opens to five apses. It houses the altarpiece of the White Virgin, executed in 1343 by Florentine artists and the Baroque chapel of the Pains, which is home to a "Pietà" by

Josep Viladomat Josep is a Catalan masculine given name equivalent to Joseph (Spanish ''José''). People named Josep include: * Josep Bargalló (born 1958), Catalan philologist and former politician * Josep Bartolí (1910-1995), Catalan painter, cartoonist and ...

. Due to its original location in the middle of the monastery, the transept once give access to both the female and the male sectors of the abbey. The sculptural complex of the "Descension", dating to c. 1250, is considered one of the most outstanding examples of

Romanesque sculpture Romanesque art is the art of Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 12th century, or later depending on region. The preceding period is known as the Pre-Romanesque period. The term was invented by 19th-century ...

in Catalonia. The monastery has also kept a small 15th century cloister in

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style, with two floors, as well as an Abbot palace, dating to the same century.

Sources

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External links

Monastery of Sant Joan de les Abadesses
{{Authority control Christian monasteries established in the 9th century San Joan de les Abadesses 9th-century establishments in Spain Religious buildings and structures completed in 885