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| View of East end and North apse. Note tower and blind arcading |
History
It is not known exactly when the monastery of St Pau delCamp was built. But in 1596 the tomb inscription of Count Wilfred-Borrell, the
son of Wilfred the Hairy, was discovered there. This suggests that a monastery
must have existed at the site in 911 (the date of Wilfred-Borrell’s death) and
that, if it was indeed the burial ground of the Counts of Barcelona, it must
have been a site of great importance. According to one much later source, from 1420, it was Wilfred the Hairy himself (first of the line of the Counts of Barcelona, and the father of Wilfred Borrell) who founded a monastery to St Paul here, but, again, there is no document to confirm this.
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| Count Wilfred's tomb inscription |
While its earliest history is undocumented, St Pau del Camp is clearly one of the most
ancient monasteries of Barcelona. When it was built it lay far outside the city
walls, among the orchards and the fields which lay between the walled city and
the hill of Montjuic – hence its name, St Paul-in-the-fields.
In 985 Barcelona was sacked by the Moorish army of Al-Mansur. It is very likely that the (Benedictine) monks abandoned St Pau: for
more than a hundred years afterwards the monastery was empty, and only the church remained open.
Foundation
At the end of the 11th century, the nobleman Geribert Guitard and his second
wife Rotlendis, both of the family Bell-lloc, restored St Pau del Camp. This
restoration must have been effectively a rebuilding, since so little remains from
before this date. Geribert and Rotlendis refounded the monastery, joining it
with that of Sant Cugat del Vallès to form a single monastic community.
Thus was born the Priory of St Pau del Camp. Some years later (29th
April 1117), the foundation was placed under the protection of the Bishop of
Barcelona and Archbishop of Tarragona, Oleguer (later Saint Oleguer), after
Geribert and Rotlendis donated the castle of Bell-lloc (in Cardedeu) with all
its privileges. The donation is recorded on the tombstone of Guillem de
Bell-lloc. Placing St Pau under the Holy See in this way gave it autonomy. The
house of Bell-lloc retained its association with the monastery, and in 1278
Beltran de Bell-lloc left it the greater part of his possessions in his will,
in return for being buried in the cloister.
In 1127, Oleguer and
the monastery’s founders Geribert and Rotlendis once again put St Pau under the
charge of San Cugat monastery, despite its autonomous status.
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| Model of church and former monastery complex (Catalunya en Minitura park) |
The ‘Tarragona Cloistered Congregation’
The ‘Congregación Claustral Tarraconense’ was founded
in 1229. This was composed of all the Benedictine monasteries of Catalan lands,
and by papal commission the Prior of St Pau was appointed president of the assembly. As a result, many assemblies of abbots and priors met in St Pau,
and there are numerous documents pertaining to these meetings which were signed
in the monastery.
In 1492, by royal decree, the monastery of Montserrat was
united to the community of Saint Benedict in Valladolid. The Congregation of
Catalan monasteries was thus split, and their assemblies became steadily less
important.
Montserrat Monastery became increasingly interested in the
monastery of Sant Pau, and in 1577 they finally persuaded Pope Gregory XIII to
decree the union of the two communities. A year later the observant monks of Montserrat
moved to St Pau, much to the displeasure of the Catalan Congregation, who had
now lost their main meeting place. After many protests from the Congregation,
the monks of Montserrat moved in 1593 to the Benedictine monastery of Bages,
which was closer and better suited to the needs of Montserrat.
But the independence of St Pau did not last long: in 1617 it
was annexed by Pope Paul V to the monastery of Sant Pere [Peter] de la
Portella (in the county of Berguedà),
whose monks (with a single exception, who stayed behind as curate of the
church) moved to St Pau, which changed in status from priory to abbey. In 1672
the buildings were enlarged to accommodate the school and novices of the
Benedictine Congregation of Catalunya.
The End of the Monastery and the Start of the Parish
In the years 1808-1814, when Spain was occupied by the
French, the monastery became first a hospital for the French troops and
subsequently a barracks for Italian soldiers. In October 1814, when the French
had left, it opened once again as a teaching institution. This was owing to the
efforts of a young teacher named Joan de Zafont, who two years later was
appointed Professor of Theology at the age of only 27; later he would become
the last abbot of St Pau del Camp.
1820-23 are the years of the ‘Trienio Liberal’, three years
of liberal government in Spain. During this period, the government decreed the
dissolution of the monastery and novitiate and created the parish of St Pau.
The monastery buildings – with the exception of the church which continued to
serve as a parish church – were appropriated by the government, who passed them
to Barcelona City Hall [ie the Council]. The City Hall initially considered
using them as an abattoir (!), then decided to use them as a reformatory. Fortunately
this period was a brief one, and was overseen by Joan de Zafont, who had been
appointed administrator of the parish of St Pau in 1822.
[In 1823 a French
army invaded Spain and restored the absolute power of the monarchy]. When the
Trienio fell in 1824 the monastery returned to its original use, although since
it was still used as a barracks for French soldiers (who remained to protect the monarchic government),
the monks themselves could not return until 1828.
In 1835 there was a popular uprising in Barcelona in protest
at working and living conditions; as on other occasions, this expressed itself
through the burning of religious buildings and factories. It is likely that the
monks of St Pau del Camp left definitively at this point, although it was
spared destruction.
In 1837 the Minister of Finance Mendizábal oversaw the ‘desamortización’
or confiscation of Church property, which the government then auctioned in order to
raise funds to reduce the chronic public deficit. The Church of St Pau became
the parish church, while the rest of the monastery was used for various
functions: in 1842 it housed two schools, one for boys and one for girls, and
from 1845-90 it was an infantry barracks. In 1879, after a campaign led by a
patriotic Catalanist group led by the writer and politician Víctor
Balaguer, St Pau del Camp was recognised as a national monument.
Fifteen years later, in 1894, the first phase of restoration
began. This concluded in 1927 with the demolition of the outbuildings, with the
exception of the gothic chapter room of the fourteenth century. work was set back by further destruction in the Tragic week (1909) and in 1936 (the start of the spanish Civil War). Recent
restoration has concentrated on levelling the terrain, which has been affected
by rain and floods, and dealing with the problems caused by dust and dirt and
the erosion of timber and stone. Of the original monastery of St Pau del Camp,
today there only remains the church, the chapterhouse, the cloister and the
abbot’s house, which is now the rectory.
Architecture
The monastery of St Pau del Camp is one of the few surviving
Romanesque buildings in Barcelona. Although we know it existed in some form in
the tenth century, the structure we see today is the result of the rebuilding
in the twelfth century.
Exterior
The principal door to the church is reached from the carrer de Sant Pau. From this side we see that the facade of the church is at right angles to the wall of the rectory (formerly the abbot’s residence), a typical feature of thirteenth and fourteenth century Catalan Gothic.
The principal door to the church is reached from the carrer de Sant Pau. From this side we see that the facade of the church is at right angles to the wall of the rectory (formerly the abbot’s residence), a typical feature of thirteenth and fourteenth century Catalan Gothic.
The door is flanked by two columns supporting the round
archivolt. The decoration of the door complex is in the visigothic tradition:
two marble visigothic capitals, presumably recovered from the older building,
carry imposts with geometrical motifs. The facade carries the symbols of the
four evangelists: at the base of the archivolt we find a lion (St Mark, on the
left), an ox (St Luke) and above the archivolt, on the wall, a winged man (St
Matthew) and an eagle (St John).
On the tympanum Christ in Majesty is in the attitude of
blessing (below the highest facade sculpture of the divine hand blessing),
accompanied by St Paul on the right and St Peter on the left. On the lintel
beneath, immediately beneath the figure of Christ is a Cross with inscriptions
of alpha and Omega, and the names of Sts Peter and Paul. Around this is an
inscription which reads: ‘This door is the way to the Lord for all, the door to
the Garden of Life. Enter here, passing through me. Renard, for himself and for
the soul of his wife Ramona, gave 7 maravedís towards the building of this
church.’
Around the archivolt are carvings of human, fantastic animal
faces and vegetal motifs. The west wall on either side of the door is decorated
by blind arcading, which is continued around the exterior.
Interior
Interior
From the outside one can see the Greek cross for of the
church, which is made up of a nave, transepts, and three apses . The ceiling consists of barrel vaulting, and a
dome over the crossing supported by pendentives, carrying an octagonal tower. As on the outside, the
interior wall surfaces are articulated by blind arches.
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| View from Crossing. Shell-shaped concavities in pendentives |
The south transept leads to the gothic chapter room, which
in turn connects to the Romanesque cloister. The three apses are decorated with
carvings of vegetal and geometric forms which reveal an Arabic influence. The groundplan makes the scheme clear, but
conceals the many irregularities which are typical of the period.
Only limited light enters the interior, giving the church an
atmosphere suited to prayer and reflection. The main altar was formerly
dedicated to St Pau, patron saint of swordsmiths. On the right there used to an
altarpiece dedicated to St Benedict and on the left an altar to Our Lady of the
Rosary and to Saint Galderic, patron saint of peasants.
The floor of the church was restored in 2002, when the ground
was levelled (it had been seriously affected by rain and floods).
The Cloister
From an architectural point of view, the cloister of St Pau is the most important feature: the arches here are unique in all of Europe. The twelfth-century cloister was constructed after the church, and shows clear Moorish influences.
From an architectural point of view, the cloister of St Pau is the most important feature: the arches here are unique in all of Europe. The twelfth-century cloister was constructed after the church, and shows clear Moorish influences.
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| Five-lobed arch, Moorish influence. Compare Gaudi, Casa Vicens |
Of the 48 capitals, many repeat a pattern derived from the
Corinthian, while others are clearly Romanesque, with zoomorphic designs. Figurative
elements include lions, warriors fighting monsters, and birds of prey. Next to
a carving of a man hunting a gazelle there is a depiction of Adam and Eve being
tempted by the serpent, and a woman tormented by two toads. Such motifs also appear in other Catalan
monasteries, such as San Cugat. There is a stylistic mixture, from the Moorish
arches to the Romanesque carvings of a group of sculptors, some of whose other
works can also be seen in Barcelona, to Gothic elements.
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| Adam and Eve (left) |
The cloister itself is clearly articulated, with buttresses
in the middle of each side supporting a gallery. Around the cloister are
several tombs, many of them pertaining to the Bell-lloc family.
Further Sources
Images
Video (images only)
Photo album by Angels GomezGeneral
Web page with photos and good information on history and architecture (Spanish / Catalan): principal source for this blog
Catalan Monasteries (Catalan) - includes photos of the church in the early twentieth century.
Catalan Romanesque gencat guide: see opening pages on Romanesque style
Sacred Destinations site
History
Catholic Barcelona blog (English)
Josefina Mutgé i Vives, Noticies Historiques sobre el Monestir de Sant Pau del Camp de Barcelona (1117-1212) (Catalan)
armoria.info - details of tombs and heraldic symbols (Spanish)
Park
