The Royal Monastery of Santa Maria
While it looks barrouqe on the outside
It looks gothic on the ceiling , in the inside.
Its origins appear surrounded by unknowns and news that is more legendary than historical.The first existing documentary news of relative reliability that tells us about a monastic life in Oya must be placed in the first third of the centuryXII,around the year 1137, when King Alfonso VII made various donations to the monastery. But when it is already possible to confirm with complete certainty the origin of this abbey, it is in 1149, the date on which the aforementioned monarch granted the monks who lived there “SUB REGULA BEATI BENEDICTI” all the royal possessions of the places of Mougás, Villadesuso and Pedornes.Years later, in 1185, Oya was annexed to the reformed rule of Saint Bernardwhich will have an impact on its austere and sober architectural physiognomy, typical of Cistercian architecture. The imposing crenellated walls of the monastery simulate being a coastal fortress. So, in the centuryXVII , due to its privileged strategic position, it constituted an important defensive bastion against the constant looting and maritime invasions so frequent at that time in the Galician estuaries. An example should be cited of the event that occurred in 1624 when the monks from the Plaza de las Armas demonstrated their military value with the sinking and escape of five Turkish pirate ships that frequented the coast, a fact that earned them the nickname “artillery monks”.On the basis of this heroic feat, Philip IV granted this abbey new privileges and donations, including confirmation of the title of Royal and Imperial Monastery of Santa María de Oya, which will coincide with the time of its greatest economic splendor.
Interesting to remember that among many of the tasks that the monks introduced in the area was the breeding of horses in a state of freedom that were found in the mountains belonging to the monastery. This practice, which is still preserved in the forests of the area, gives rise to a spectacle of international fame: A rapa das bestas. The monks of Oya, in addition to clearing land and opening roads, implemented vine cultivation according to the custom of the French Cistercian abbeys. Today we can taste tasty wines under the Rías Bajas designation of origin.
In the centuryXVI another event to highlight in the history of the monastery occurs, the legend of the Virgin of the Sea[5] current patron saint of the Oya City Council. It all begins when in 1581, some farmers found on a cliff on the coast, in a place called La Orejuda, an image of a virgin attached by a chain to the figure of a dog. After rescuing her, she was carried on her shoulders in a procession to the Monastery. When the excited men arrive, they explain to the perplexed monks that the image has arrived there from the sea on the back of the canid wearing a shell necklace. The monks therefore took the image on their own shoulders and took it to the Monastery church. They take as a miracle the fact that it did not break into pieces on the steep cliffs in the areaalthough what perhaps many did not know then is that thousands of images sailed the sea as a result of the rise to power in Great Britain of the Puritan Cromwell and his iconoclastic fury, which emptied the British churches of images.
With the arrival of centuryXIX this monastic complex suddenly slows down the intense development that it had experienced over the previous centuries. The Napoleonic invasion and especially the confiscation and plundering of Mendizábal will cause the definitive abandonment in 1835 of the monks, who are expelled from what had been their home since centuryXII . From this moment on, the history of the church and the monastery will develop along very different paths. Since 1838, by order of the bishop of Tuy, the temple has become a parish seat, while the monastic quarters will be auctioned and passed into private hands. From then on, the beginnings of a long period of abandonment and deterioration were marked. In 1910 the Jesuits expelled from Portugal leased the monastery, where a school was established. This order remained in Oya until 1932, when they had to abandon it when the assets of the Society of Jesus and decree his expulsion from the national territory. This fact coincided with the years of the Civil War, when the monastery was used as a prison, housing numerous mostly Catalan, Valencian and Mallorcan republican prisoners. In the last months of 1937 and from February to May 1939 it was officially used as franco concentration camp, housing three thousand inmates. Its presence has been evident in the mural inscriptions in various rooms. The harsh conditions of confinement and the lack of hygiene caused great mortality among those hospitalized there; They also took place every night you take out of prisoners, who were shot in the vicinity of the cemetery. During this period its state of abandonment and destruction will continue and even worsen. From this moment on, the monastery will go through a stage of sales between different families who came to establish their home in the monument itself.
You find the sun the moon and even tempelar symbols on the ceiling, very interesting church.
Its origins appear surrounded by unknowns and news that is more legendary than historical.The first existing documentary news of relative reliability that tells us about a monastic life in Oya must be placed in the first third of the centuryXII,around the year 1137, when King Alfonso VII made various donations to the monastery. But when it is already possible to confirm with complete certainty the origin of this abbey, it is in 1149, the date on which the aforementioned monarch granted the monks who lived there “SUB REGULA BEATI BENEDICTI” all the royal possessions of the places of Mougás, Villadesuso and Pedornes.Years later, in 1185, Oya was annexed to the reformed rule of Saint Bernardwhich will have an impact on its austere and sober architectural physiognomy, typical of Cistercian architecture. The imposing crenellated walls of the monastery simulate being a coastal fortress. So, in the centuryXVII , due to its privileged strategic position, it constituted an important defensive bastion against the constant looting and maritime invasions so frequent at that time in the Galician estuaries. An example should be cited of the event that occurred in 1624 when the monks from the Plaza de las Armas demonstrated their military value with the sinking and escape of five Turkish pirate ships that frequented the coast, a fact that earned them the nickname “artillery monks”.On the basis of this heroic feat, Philip IV granted this abbey new privileges and donations, including confirmation of the title of Royal and Imperial Monastery of Santa María de Oya, which will coincide with the time of its greatest economic splendor.
Interesting to remember that among many of the tasks that the monks introduced in the area was the breeding of horses in a state of freedom that were found in the mountains belonging to the monastery. This practice, which is still preserved in the forests of the area, gives rise to a spectacle of international fame: A rapa das bestas. The monks of Oya, in addition to clearing land and opening roads, implemented vine cultivation according to the custom of the French Cistercian abbeys. Today we can taste tasty wines under the Rías Bajas designation of origin.
In the centuryXVI another event to highlight in the history of the monastery occurs, the legend of the Virgin of the Sea[5] current patron saint of the Oya City Council. It all begins when in 1581, some farmers found on a cliff on the coast, in a place called La Orejuda, an image of a virgin attached by a chain to the figure of a dog. After rescuing her, she was carried on her shoulders in a procession to the Monastery. When the excited men arrive, they explain to the perplexed monks that the image has arrived there from the sea on the back of the canid wearing a shell necklace. The monks therefore took the image on their own shoulders and took it to the Monastery church. They take as a miracle the fact that it did not break into pieces on the steep cliffs in the areaalthough what perhaps many did not know then is that thousands of images sailed the sea as a result of the rise to power in Great Britain of the Puritan Cromwell and his iconoclastic fury, which emptied the British churches of images.
With the arrival of centuryXIX this monastic complex suddenly slows down the intense development that it had experienced over the previous centuries. The Napoleonic invasion and especially the confiscation and plundering of Mendizábal will cause the definitive abandonment in 1835 of the monks, who are expelled from what had been their home since centuryXII . From this moment on, the history of the church and the monastery will develop along very different paths. Since 1838, by order of the bishop of Tuy, the temple has become a parish seat, while the monastic quarters will be auctioned and passed into private hands. From then on, the beginnings of a long period of abandonment and deterioration were marked. In 1910 the Jesuits expelled from Portugal leased the monastery, where a school was established. This order remained in Oya until 1932, when they had to abandon it when the assets of the Society of Jesus and decree his expulsion from the national territory. This fact coincided with the years of the Civil War, when the monastery was used as a prison, housing numerous mostly Catalan, Valencian and Mallorcan republican prisoners. In the last months of 1937 and from February to May 1939 it was officially used as franco concentration camp, housing three thousand inmates. Its presence has been evident in the mural inscriptions in various rooms. The harsh conditions of confinement and the lack of hygiene caused great mortality among those hospitalized there; They also took place every night you take out of prisoners, who were shot in the vicinity of the cemetery. During this period its state of abandonment and destruction will continue and even worsen. From this moment on, the monastery will go through a stage of sales between different families who came to establish their home in the monument itself.
You find the sun the moon and even tempelar symbols on the ceiling, very interesting church.
#movie
1 Month to go, still training,...