Braver now, my excursions go further afield. The latest outing was to the Monastery of
Sant Pere de Rodes on the Costa Brava.
This remarkable compound, built mostly in the 10th and 11th
centuries, sits 520 meters above the sea on Mount Verdera where it has an
impressive, uninterrupted view of the coastline. How they managed to build it, I can’t
imagine. But having done so, the
Benedictine monks abandoned it 1798 to move inland where there were fewer
French troops and bandits to disturb the monastic peace.
Having been plundered many times over and falling into ruin,
it was declared a monument of national
historic and artistic interest in 1930 and since then, sporadic work has been
done on it until finally, between 1989 and 1999 an important restoration
project was carried out.
Today you can visit most of the buildings, enjoy the views, and
have lunch in a lovely restaurant within the compound. I can’t attest to the food as I didn’t eat
there, but I can say that the view from the restaurant is heavenly. The monastery sits in the Parc Natural de Cap
de Creus with hiking trails fanning out in every direction. The day I visited, there were several groups
seated here and there enjoying a picnic lunch in the surrounding grounds.
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Only two fragments remain of the
marble reliefs that once adorned the
entry to the church |
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| The church |
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| 11th century lower cloister |
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| Now a restaurant |
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| Looking up into one of the towers |
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| Hiking paths here, there, and everywhere |
Looks wonderful and as usual your photos are spectacular
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you! And thanks. I hesitated posting the photo of the church interior. It was the best of several very poor interior shots. I must get out my how-to photo book and study.
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