Graceful Gothic arcades with slender columns and sculpted capitals replaced rounded Romanesque arches after the cloister of the ancient Monestir or monastery at Sant Joan de les Abadesses in Ripollès county, Catalonia, Spain, suffered damage from an earthquake in 1428 and a fire in 1442.
Sant Joan de les Abadesses, Ripollès, Catalonia, Spain: within the walls of the ancient Monestir or monastery in this town in the Pyrenean foothills, slim columns and sculpted capitals support graceful pointed Gothic arcades built to replace the rounded Romanesque arches of an earlier cloister damaged by an earthquake in 1428 and by fire in 1442. Although the monastery retains its 12th century Lombard Romanesque church, its origins date back to 887 AD. It was founded as a Benedictine nunnery - the first female religious community in Catalonia - by Count Guifré el Pilós or Pelós (Wilfred the Hairy), as part of his plan to repopulate frontier territories left uninhabited by the struggle against Saracen occupiers. Wilfred's 14-year-old daughter, Emma, was appointed its first abbess and she governed the nunnery until her death in 942. In 1017, the nuns were expelled, supposedly for moral laxity, and were replaced my monks - at various times under either Augustinian or Benedictine rule. The Romanesque church, consecrated in 1150, had to be partly rebuilt after the 1428 earthquake collapsed the bell tower, devastated an ancient bridge over the River Ter and damaged much of the walled medieval town.
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Sant Joan de les Abadesses, Ripollès, Catalonia, Spain.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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