Sant Benet de Bages Monastery near Barcelona

Sant Benet de Bages monastery


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The Sant Benet de Bages is a former 10th century Benedictine monastery, located in the county of Bages in Catalonia, Spain. Sant Benet is the Catalan language name for Saint Benedict of Nursia. It is a Romanesque monastery and was thoroughly restored at the beginning of the twentieth century. The restoration was done by the Catalan/Spanish architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch.

The monastery was founded about 950 by the nobleman Salla of the house of the viscounts of Osona. According to legend, Salla traveled to Rome to have his institution authorized, and to have it depend directly on the Holy See, which was the usual method to preserve the monks community from interference from the local bishop— in this case the Bishop of Vic— in whose diocese Sant Benet de Bages was located.

The abbey church was consecrated 3 December 972 in the presence of a gathering of notables including Borrell II, Count of Barcelona, the bishops Frugifer of Vic, Guisad of Urgell and Pere of Barcelona, the viscount Guadald of Osona, and three of the four children of the recently deceased founder, his son Isarn and the sisters Quíxol and Ego, at the head of witnesses both laymen and priests, in a grand ceremonial recorded in the surviving act of consecration.

On 9 November 1593, by order of Pope Clement VIII Sant Benet de Bages passed under the direction of the Montserrat Abbey, and served as a place of retirement for Montserrat's community of monks until 1820.  In the Spanish confiscation law of 1835 "desamortización española", all religious orders in Spain were ordered to give up their possessions.

Later the crumbling ancient Sant Benet de Bages monastery attracted the interest of Catalan intellectuals who organised visits to it in the late nineteenth century. The architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch and the painter Ramon Casas - who was a friend of Pablo Picasso - persuaded Casas's mother to buy the property in 1907.

In 1910 upon her death it passed to Casas himself, who then commissioned Puig i Cadafalch to restore it. In 2000 it was purchased from Casas' heirs and since then it has belonged to bank CatalunyaCaixa.

Address
Camí de Sant Benet de Bages, s/n, 08272
Sant Fruitós de Bages, Barcelona

Website 
https://monsantbenet.com/en/

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Last Updated on Sunday, 17 December 2023 21:59