Monastery of San Miguel de las Dueñas

He Monastery of San Miguel de las Dueñas It is a female cenobio of the Congregation of Monasteries of Cistercian nuns of San Bernardo located in the homonymous population of the region of El Bierzo of the province of León (Community of Castilla y León, Spain). Although founded in the century X , the architectural set that has reached our days corresponds fundamentally to the centuries XVII and XVIII .

The monastery had to be founded between the years 970 and 980 by the Notary of the Castle of Luna and Ensign Real, Count Gonzalo Bermúdez, favorite of Ramiro III of León. His original invocation was San Miguel de Almázcara and his community was masculine, of Benedictine monks. The oldest text that documes its existence, guarded in the archive of the Cathedral of León, is dated 998; It is part of how Bermudo II, successor of Ramiro III, punished D. Gonzalo with the confiscation of goods for the revolt that he had starred from Luna Castle. One of the confiscated goods was the Berciano monastery, delivered by the monarch to Sampiro, a real and subsequently bishop of Astorga.

With this Monacal Foundation, it was intended to repopulate and exploit the resources of the area, in the Boza River basin, and thus reinforce the Asturian Christian kingdom in front of the proximity of the Muslim Empire. Around the monastery, a core of peasant population was shaped. In the century XI It was subject to the secular control of the infantado. In 1152, Infanta D. Sancha Raimúndez, supported by his brother, Alfonso VII the Emperor, restored the Cenobium, endowed it with great inheritances and installed in him a community of nuns subject to the abbots of the monastery of Santa María de Carracedo. When years later the Carracetense Abbey adopted the Cister’s rule, the monastery of San Miguel, as its subsidiary, did the same. Thus, since the beginning of the century XIII The Cenobio of Almázcara was under the jurisdiction of San Bernardo. From this moment, it became known as San Miguel de las Dueñas

The Dueñas of San Miguel exercised the jurisdictional and territorial lordship within a monastic preserve defined by the Infanta D. Sancha. They attracted peasant repopulators and increased their heritage, in Bercian lands and also by the Basin of the orbigo, the Eria and the Tera, setting the administration of the Abadengo. The Bernardas enjoyed royal protection since Fernando III El Santo.

San Miguel suffered important ups and downs in the coming centuries. At the end of the century XV , the general crisis through which the Cistercian order did not exclude the Bercian house. In 1505 San Miguel was reduced a priorate dependent on Berciano, Monastery of San Guillermo de Villabuena (founded in 1229), exclaustrated and their income destined for the school that the Cistercians established in Salamanca.

By 1525 the Villabuena monastery was razed in a flood of the Cúa River and the nuns of San Miguel had returned to their old house. It was the beginning of a new stage of prosperity, in which the nuns expanded the architectural factory with the construction of new cloister and church, and consolidated their estate and heritage. In the century XIX , the confiscation led to the nuns an exclaustration that lasted for 26 years.

Est of Cultural Interest (BIC) with the category of National Historic-Artistic Monument since 1992, in 2000 the Leonese monastery integrated five of the six sisters from the closed monastery of San Bernardo, or Las Bernardas, from Alcalá de Alcalá Henares. The Church experienced a restorative intervention in 1998.

Description [ To edit ]

Of the medieval Romanesque construction, which consisted of a simple temple with a attached cloister, nothing remains, beyond some isolated vestiges, following the comprehensive transformation undertaken between the centuries XVI al XVIII . The factory that has come to us is framed in a baroque sober conventual classicist.

A double flavor, conventual and Berciano, is noticed in the outer appearance of the set, raised with masonry walls and masonry elements in architecturally sensitive parts such as corners, cornices, lintels, window frames and buttresses topped in balls. The various chromatic shades of the rigging and the crowded covered covers give rise to a sober and rustic -looking monastery, perfectly integrated into the landscape, although not exempt from monumentality. Horizontality predominates, only broken by two scurial remembrance chapitles, two swords and a small vault flashlight.

Crossing a masonry fence and a baroque airstilled cover cover (despite corresponding its construction to the first years of the century XIX ) Consisting of discounted arc flanked by molded pilasters and coronadocon fronton, it is accessed to a compass or paved and landscaped space that distributes the various monacal units: the church, the goal, the house of the confessory or lodge and the house of the chapellanes . They are constructions raised in the centuries XVII and XVIII .

Church [ To edit ]

It is the only part of the monastery that can be visited, belonging to the other units to the closure, although a few years ago the sisters conditioned a small part of the closure as a museum. After 1695 and with a Latin cross plant, the temple manifests the will of the monastery to open up to the population as a parish but without giving up the simplicity and austerity of the Cistercian closure, a spirit that is reflected in the wall structure robust with hardly any decoration and scarce openings.

The temple is accessed by a baroque cover open on the gospel wall (north). It consists of a lower part consisting of a half -point arch between molded pilasters, such as the entablation that covers them; Above, an overwhelmed lacking decorative displays, consisting of a niche between pilasters and embolated tacos that hosts an image of the head of the house, San Miguel Arcángel; By way of auction, three shields, the central with the blazons of the royal crown, and the sides, alluding to the order of the Cister.

The space consists of a single six -sections ship with a small cruise and, in the head, rectangular presbytery. An artistic NEW of wrought iron of three bodies and topped with a polychrome and blast crest, from the end of the century XVII , divide the ship for the cult: the first four sections are reserved to the monastic choir of closing, and the two later ones together with the cruise constitute the space for parish parishioner.

The ship is covered with a cannon vault with lunetos, dated in 1695 according to a recorded inscription, and the cruise with a hemiespheric vault on smooth pechinas. The arches are attached to brackets that extend in cough pilasters of prismatic section and concave vertical feast. A lean cornice of the same order travels the entire perimeter. Paraments and plementeries are plaster in white, contrasting with the stone gray of arches, brackets, cornice and pilasters. The whole set offers a maximum purity of lines, of an austere classicism.

The church furniture consists of a series of altarpieces made in the baroque -style recharged on horseback between the centuries XVII and XVIII . The most notable is the Main altarpiece , typical baroque golden mazonería profusely decorated, around 1700, consisting of predelants, body of three streets separated by salomonic columns with vegetable ornament and semicircular attic, that is, a hexastyl altarpiece. His assembly and sculpture have been attributed to Bercian artists José de Ovalle and Bernardo de Quirós. The central space is occupied by a size of Our Lady of the Assumption, surrounded by cherubs; On their sides, round packages of the saints Benito and Bernardo, on which two reliefs alluding to their people are located. San Miguel, in a warrior attitude and beating the devil, is placed in the attic. In the Bank, the Tabernacle-Tabernacular with the exhibition of a small image of the Child Jesus, a baroque work of the XVII from the Monastery of Alcalá de Henares.

Of smaller size although of similar style are four other altarpieces arranged on the sides, two on the cruise, of small size and unique body, and two in the last section of the ship, of a more attic body. Surely they are also the work of José de Ovalle. The left arm of the cruise is dedicated to Santa Scholastica, the right arm of the cruise to San José and El Niño, the left side of the ship to Santa Teresa Reina and the one on the right side of the ship is chaired by a Calvary. They all host round lump sizes of the saint to which they are dedicated. Of the four, the most interesting artistically is the Altarpiece of Calvary . The batch of the body welcomes Mary, St. John and Crucified Christ; that of the body superior to a San Roque.

Other images of value, exempt, are a San Miguel Archangel of the XVII and, of the XVIII, a San Guillermo, probably the Guillermo de Peñacorada, the hermit whose relics, brought from the monastery of Villabuena, are guarded and venerated here.

The broad Choir It occupies the first four sections of the ship. This closing space contains: a baroque stalls restored in the nineties of the century XX ; a modern organ of 1998, which replaced the old; two canvases of the century XVIII , one with San Juan in Patmos writing the apocalypse and the other with the immaculate framed in an altarpiece, as well as other baroque paintings; On the back wall, inside a semicircular arcosolio in the wall, an elaborate gold altarpiece and polychrome from the end of the century XVII which contains, distributed in five more bodies prelate it and in five streets, 27 busts with relics of Santos, and that presides over a crucified; and at the foot of it, a Christ and XVI , from Alcalá de Henares. The Sacristy It has a walnut drawer with baroque reliefs

The Closing Monastery [ To edit ]

Portería [ To edit ]

It presents facade with a cover of two bodies: the lower one hosts high scarce arc with the outstanding key between pilasters; The upper one is articulated with a window flanked by two birds that cover modern statues of San Benito and San Bernardo.

Cloisters [ To edit ]

There are two: the main or regular and another minor or the goal, also called the palace, for being the area that the abbess inhabited. The Cloister of the Datería goal of 1683; It is a simple and austere work, with two heights of 12 semicircular arcades each, three per panda, united in its prepaid bases.

The regular cloister projected it in 1741 Gaspar López, architect of the Cathedral of Astorga, although its factory lasted until 1803. large, it is also sober but balanced, with two heights and 9 half -point arches per panda. On the lower floor, the two archery closest to the corners are blinded, opening in their place rectangular vain. On the upper floor, the antepchos are partially abalaustrated. The bays are covered with a cannon vault with lunetos, whose fajones arches unite in the interior walls in brackets. Los Plements, brick, are planted with baroque plasters. In each of the interior angles of the cloister two semicircular niches are arranged that host devotional altarpieces, eight in total, corresponding to the centuries XVI , XVII and XVII . The altarpieces, which have a complete closure by means of a two -sheet door, have the following advocations: San José, San Juan Bautista, Santa Ana, San Bernardo, the descent, Christ Flagellate, San Mamés and Our Lady.

A fire destroyed part of this cloister in 1903, which was rebuilt following the original guidelines.

Main staircase [ To edit ]

It was built in 1756. Main ornament of it is the image of the virgin enthroned with the child and reliefs with six apostles figures. They are works of the century XIII , extracted from its original location in the old Romanesque and embedded monastery in baroque construction. The staircase box is covered with half orange vault with flashlight on pechinas. In 1999, a crucified of the XVI was placed in this space, from Alcalá.

Capitular room [ To edit ]

The current chapter hall was raised in 1754, reuse for the cover the previous late Romanesque, focused and with four semicircular archivolts that rest in historical cimacios and capitals. The room is removed with a cannon vault with lunetos, to the baroque, divided into four sections by sillarejo fajones arches. A baroque altarpiece of the eighteenth and several images, some of dress and others of a whole, brought by the Alcalain nuns are arranged in this space.

Monacal Museum [ To edit ]

It occupies a part of the closing units and collects a sample of liturgical goldsmithing, fabrics, embroidery and another Monjil trousseau.

Lay services [ To edit ]

The monastery of San Miguel de las Dueñas houses a lodge with capacity for five people. The community allocates part of its activity to the preparation of corserry and ceramic decoration, the latter product that can be acquired in the goal, as well as religious literature specialized in monacal life and the order of the Cister.

Bibliography [ To edit ]

• González García , Miguel Angel; Cavero Domínguez , Gregoria (2003). San Miguel de las Dueñas. Bierzo Cistercian Monastery . Ediles. ISBN 84-8012-232-3 .

external links [ To edit ]