Moreruela Abbey (''Monasterio de Santa María de Moreruela'') is a former
Cistercian monastery in the province of
Zamora in
Castile and León,
Spain
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, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
.
Location
Moreruela Abbey is situated to the west of
Granja de Moreruela, about 35 kilometres north of the town of
Zamora close to the left bank of the
Esla Esla or ESLA can refer to:
* Əşlə, Azerbaijani municipality
* Esla river
The Esla is a river in the provinces of León and Zamora in the northwest of Spain. It is a tributary of the Duero River that starts in the Cantabrian Mountains and i ...
, a tributary of the
Duero
The Douro (, , ; es, Duero ; la, Durius) is the highest-flow river of the Iberian Peninsula. It rises near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province, central Spain, meanders south briefly then flows generally west through the north-west part of ...
.
History
Before the time of the Cistercians, a monastery of the
Benedictine
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, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
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, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
s already stood on the site, founded for them either by the
Asturia
Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain.
It is coextensive ...
n King
Alfonso III or by Saint
Froilan, which under the patronage of
Alfonso VII
Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...
the Cistercians took over. The date of this takeover is often put at 1131/1133, which would make Moreruela the earliest Cistercian foundation in Spain. There is however an alternative theory which dates the establishment of the Cistercians here at 1143.
Moreruela was a daughter house of
Clairvaux, and in its turn was the mother house of
Nogales Abbey, also in Spain (1164), and
Aguiar Abbey in
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
(1165).
The abbey was declared a national monument in 1931.
Buildings and precinct
There are many remains of the abbey, although in ruins, particularly the
Romanesque abbey church in the shape of a
Latin cross
A Latin cross or ''crux immissa'' is a type of cross in which the vertical beam sticks above the crossbeam, with the three upper arms either equally long or with the vertical topmost arm shorter than the two horizontal arms, and always with a mu ...
63 metres long, the construction of which was begun about 1170 and finished in the second quarter of the 13th century. The apse at the east end is completely preserved and has a vaulted ambulatory round a rectangular choir, with seven chapels as at Clairvaux.
[cf. also ]Pontigny Abbey
Pontigny Abbey (french: Abbaye de Pontigny), the church of which in recent decades has also been the cathedral of the Mission de France, otherwise the Territorial Prelature of Pontigny (french: Cathédrale-abbatiale de Notre-Dame-de-l’Assompt ...
, Royaumont Abbey
Royaumont Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey, located near Asnières-sur-Oise in Val-d'Oise, approximately 30 km north of Paris, France.
History
It was built between 1228 and 1235 with the support of Louis IX. Several members of the Frenc ...
, Heisterbach Abbey
Heisterbach Abbey (Kloster Heisterbach; also Petersthal, formerly Petersberg) was a Cistercian monastery in the ''Siebengebirge'' near Oberdollendorf in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Petersberg
The tradition of its origin is that a knight name ...
, etc Also preserved are the walls of the 27 metres wide transept and of the northern aisle, and parts of the nave, once comprising three aisles and nine bays.
Of the conventual buildings to the north of the church, the
chapter house among others remains, although partly reconstructed.
Notes
References
* de la Granja, Alonso M., 1998: ''El Monasterio de Moreruela: La primera fundación cisterciense en España''. ''Cistercium'' 1998, vol. 50, Nr. 210, pp. 313–333. ISSN 0210-3990
* Dimier, M.-Anselme, 1971: ''L’Art cistercien hors de France'' (pp. 40 f). Zodiaque: La-Pierre-qui-Vire.
* Karge, Henrik, 1992: ''Gotische Architektur in Kastilien und León'', in: ''Spanische Kunstgeschichte – eine Einführung'', vol. 1 (eds. Sylvaine Hensel and Henrik Karge, pp. 113, 121, with groundplan of the church in the appendix). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.
* Sáinz Sáiz, Javier, 2003: ''El Románico en Zamora'' (pp. 82 f.). León: Ediciones Lancia.
External links
Moreruela Abbey websitewith many images
{{Coord, 41.8167, N, 5.7333, W, source:dewiki_region:ES-ZA_type:landmark, format=dms, display=title
Cistercian monasteries in Spain
Christian monasteries established in the 12th century