Sant Quirze de Colera

My friend Josep is one of those people with ants in his pants. He is never happier than when he is on the road – small side road, never the major motorway. With him there is no shortage of destinations as he knows every nook and cranny for miles around, including the nearby southern part of France. His problem now is that that cute little Smart sports car of his is in the shop after he had a wreck. It’s been there since before Christmas because it is a challenge to find parts for a rare car. Which is why, these days, he is willing to ride in my plebeian cart and for me to do the driving.

The other day the ants must have gotten the better of him, for he asked me if I had ever been to Sant Quirze de Colera, probably guessing that I had never even heard of it. A medieval monastery that sits in its own small valley in the foothills of the Pyrenees is something one does want to see.

You get there by driving down a small local highway that has no number, and turning onto another even smaller road that turns into a dirt road. Not to worry. If you go slow enough and watch out for the large holes and big rocks, you’ll be just fine.

The ride was lovely. At the road’s end, in a small valley sat this spectacular 12^th century romanesque complex: church, cloister, monastery, and a separate parish church. The original benedictine community settled there at the end of the 8^th century; the original church was built in the 10^th. Already in partial ruins, in 1592 it was closed and in 1598 it was sold and was turned into a farm. It remained in that family until 1994. Sitting within the town limits of Rabós, the family then ceded the property to the town.

The parish church of Santa Maria

Cloister

Church of Sant Quirze interior

When we Americans think of a building being old, we think 200 years. In Europe, those numbers are very different, but people here take it for granted. Our apartment in Tarragona looked out at the old Roman wall of the city. It was built in the 2^nd century B.C. The church of Sant Pere, here in Figueres, just celebrated it’s 1000^th anniversary. For that matter, Josep’s family has lived here for many generations. On his mother’s side, the family comes from Vilajuiga, not far from Rabós. The name means Jewish town and his mother used to always say (or joke) that the family is probably Jewish. That is probably even more intriguing than a medieval monastery sitting in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

(Photos taken with my cell phone)