Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas: Difference between revisions

For the monastery of the same name in Valladolid, see Santa María la Real de las Huelgas (Valladolid).

Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas
Native name Spanish: Monasterio de Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas
Facade of the monastery
Location	Burgos, Castile and León, Spain
Founded	1187
Built	12th-13th centuries
Architectural style(s)	Romanesque, Almohad, Gothic
Governing body	Cistercian nuns
Spanish Cultural Heritage
Official name	Monasterio de Santa María la Real de las Huelgas
Type	Non-movable
Criteria	Monument
Designated	June 3, 1931
Reference no.	RI-51-0000453
Location of Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Spain

Ambulatory and gardens of the monastery.

File:Las Claustrillas Las Huelgas.jpg

Las Claustrillas.

The Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas is a monastery of Cistercian nuns located approximately 1.5 km west of the city of Burgos in Spain. The word huelgas, which usually refers to "labor strikes" in modern Spanish, refers in this case to land which had been left fallow. Historically, the monastery has been the site of many weddings of royal families, both foreign and Spanish, including that of Edward I of England to Eleanor of Castile in 1254, for example. The defensive tower of the Abbey is also the birthplace of King Peter I of Castile.

History

Tower of Alfonso XI, part of the former City Walls, and belongs to Las Huelgas.

File:Fountain in courtyard of Santa Maria la Real de las Huelgas.jpg

Detail of a fountain.

File:Santa Maria la Real de las Huelgas.jpg

Detail of the Portería.

The abbey was founded in 1180 by Alfonso VIII of Castile "the Noble", at the behest of his wife, Eleanor of England, daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. The foundation was probably Leonor's initiative: Stablish in the capital of Castile a monastery attended by noble ladies that be, like Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, residence of the monarchy and dynastic pantheon.

In 1187 already it know that the monastery was inhabited. This year the Kings make a substantial donation: "construimus ... monasterium in La Vega de Burgis quod vocatur Sancta Maria Regalis."

It was built on a recreation's place that had the monarch near the city of Burgos. The new construction includes a palace where kings could stay. Life in the monastery began with a group of nuns arrived from Monastery of Karitateko Santa Mariaren Errege of Tulebras, Navarre. With them came Doña María Sol, which was the first abbess of Las Huelgas. Doña María Sol belonged to the Royal House of Aragon. She received the sacred crosier in presence of many princes and bishops. She consegrated to Doña Constanza, Alfonso VIII of Castile's daughter. Gotta have in her convent a similar jurisdiction to the Cistercian abbot. She ruled for 16 years, from 1187 to 1203, the year she died. It is believed to be buried in the Chapter house.

The second abbess was Doña María Gutiérrez, who died in 1205. She was succeeded by the Infanta Doña Constanza, the founders kings's daughter.

Monastery of Las Huelgas welcomed distinguished ladies of the Castilian nobility and its abbess came to have great autonomy and power, depending directly on the Pope. She owned a quite heritage: 54 villas (towns), lands, mills and pontazgo, portazgo and montazgo tax exemptions, turnpike and montazgo and the possession of many of the royal families' valued personal items, most of them religious; the lordship had its own fuero, which the abbess applied. It is even claimed that, until the Council of Trent, the abbess was able to hear confession and give absolution, like a priest.

Until the 16th century, it enjoyed many royal privileges granted to it by the king, including exemption from taxes, the lordship of many villages and territories (governed by the monastery's abbess), and the possession of many of the royal families' valued personal items, most of them religious. It is even claimed that, until the Council of Trent, the abbess was able to hear confession and give absolution, like a priest.

One of the reasons that prompted the kings to found the monastery was to become in royal pantheon, and they themselves wanted to be buried there, as founders of a new dynasty. The Alfonso's grandfather and father lay in Toledo Cathedral. Alfonso VIII was building his own dynastic image. By first time he used the castle as heraldic emblem against the lion kept by his cousin and uncle, and his dead body was covered with a patterned blanket with castles.

Alfonso VIII, who was himself to be buried at Las Huelgas, along with his wife, Eleanor, created the affiliated Royal Hospital, with all its dependencies, subject to the Abbess. The hospital was founded to feed and care for the poor pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago. Donations made to sustain the hospital noted the key role that Eleanor played in its founding and maintenance, and she made many donations in honor of her deceased son Ferdinand.

In Oviedo Alfonso II of Asturias started the tradition of organizing a civitas regia with palace, chapel and cemetery. Later Ramiro II of León gave city of León a royal complex similar to the Oviedo -monastery and palace- and there his daughter Elvira built a first Leonese royal cemetery. Imitating Leonese pantheons, under patronage of Alfonso VI was built at foot of the monastery church of Sahagún a chapel-pantheon, royal funeral chapel. In Las Huelgas, like Oviedo or León, royal cemetery was located in a monastery adjoining the palace.

In 1199 Guido, Abbot of the Order, visited Las Huelgas to receive from Alfonso VIII the Burgalese foundation. In the Cister's mother house was building a funeral chapel for the founders. Similarly, Alfonso and Leonor express their desire to be buried in the monastery with all their descendants. In 1204 king makes a will and he expresses his wish that his remains stay a sepulcher (“ubi corpus meus tumuletur”).

In the same year the monastery was incorporated into the Cistercian Order and became the burial place of the royal family. Constance, the youngest daughter of Alfonso, joined the Cistercians there. She was the first known as the Lady of Las Huelgas. This position was held as well by other women from the royal family, including her niece Constance and her grand-niece Berengaria, and maintained the close connection between the community and their royal patrons. Queen Eleanor and Queen Berengaria were both documented as supporting and being involved with the abbey. While members of the royal family were secular leaders of the monastery, abbesses such as Sancha Garcia were spiritual authorities.

Throughout the church there are sepulchers of the royal family, some tilled and other smooth. Las Huelgas became the main royal pantheon of Castile and preserved sepulchers of royal members until 16th century.

The chapter house, as was usual in the Cistercian abbeys, served as cemetery for the abbesses. There may come six sarcophagi preserved today in the Claustrillas.

Prior to the death of kings, were buried in Las Huelgas some of their prematurely died children: Sancho, second son after Berengaria, born in April 1181 and died in July of the same year, Sancha, Mafalda and Eleanor. Their sepulchers were perhaps initially in Las Claustrillas, where was the first royal cemetery, and now are in the church, in the nave of St. Catherine.

One of them is richly decorated and includes an epitaph dated 1194, QUIS QUIS ADES QUI MORTE CADES NostRA/ Per LEGE PLORA SUM QUOD ERIS QUOD ES TempoRE FUI PRO ME PRECOR ORA E/ MCCXXXII. "Whoever you are, you will fall in death, attends and cries the mine. I am what you will be and I was what you are now; I beg you to pray for me. 1194". Is ignored what infante belongs.

In 1189 Ferdinand was born, who for some years was the heir, but who died before their parents, in 1211. The kings gave the monastery a large sum of money to decorate his sepulcher ("ad ornandum sepulturam").

Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada reports that monarchs and infantes were buried together in the monastery. Rodrigo had visited the royal sephulcers and officiated several funerals. Indicates that Queen Eleanor was buried next her husband, King Henry I of Castile, who died in 1217, was buried next to his brother Ferdinand.

In 1279, being a nun in the monastery the infanta Berengaria, Ferdinand III of Castile's daughter, all the sepulchers were moved into the church. then were consecrated three cemeteries: "Et tunc dedicatum fuit cemaeterium nobilissimi regis Alphonsi, fundatoris praefati monasterii, cemaeterium aliorum regum, cemaeterium infantissarum, et capitulum." In the central nave new sepulchers were placed, carved occasion of the transfer, that of Alfonso VIII of Castile, of Eleanor of England, and also that of Queen Berengaria. In the nave of the Epistle or the San Juan was located the cemetery of the infantas, ladies of monastery. And the nave of the Gospel or the St. Catherine was dedicated to cemetery of rest of kings and infantes. The document of the transfer does not indicate the origin of the bodies, but according to tradition preserved in the memory of the nuns, these came from the chapel of Las Claustrillas.

A community of lay brothers developed to help the nuns in their care of the hospital's patients, who became known as the Order of Brothers Hospitallers of Burgos. There were never more than a dozen of them, but they formed an independent Military order in 1474. The Brothers survived as an Order until 1587, when their Order was suppressed and they were again placed under the authority of the abbess.

The Abbess of the monastery was, by the favor of the king, invested with almost royal prerogatives, and exercised an unlimited secular authority over more than fifty villages. Like secular lords, she held her own courts, in civil and criminal cases, and, like bishops, she granted Dimissorial Letters for ordination, and issued licenses authorizing priests within the territory of her abbatial jurisdiction to hear confessions, to preach, and to engage in pastoral care. She was privileged also to confirm the Abbesses of other monasteries, to impose censures, and to convoke synods. At a General Chapter of the Cistercians held in 1189, she was made Abbess General of the Order for the Kingdom of León and Castile, with the privilege of convoking annually a general chapter at Burgos.

Cloister of San Fernando.

The privileges of the abbess remained until the 19th century, when these were abolished by Pope Pius IX.

Currently, the monastic community, which at present numbers 36, is part of the Spanish Congregation of St. Bernard, a reform movement of Cistercian nuns, which arose during the 16th and 17th centuries. Due to this, they are also commonly referred to as "Bernadines". The nuns of this Congregation would follow a more exact observance of the Rule of St. Benedict than other Cistercian houses, with frequent and lengthy fasts, and celebrating the Divine Office about 2:00 A.M. The nuns support themselves through the decoration of porcelain items, making rosaries and providing laundry services for local hotels.

This abbey has founded a daughter house in Peru, the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity, which is located in the agricultural Lurín District, on the outskirts of the Lima Metropolitan Area. The monastery has about ten professed nuns, and several candidates in various stages of formation. They support themselves by making cakes and jams, for which they use the produce of their own gardens.

Cultural heritage

The monastery is open to the public. Visits are administered not by the monastic community, but by the Spanish heritage organisation Patrimonio Nacional, which maintains the property as a Spanish royal site.

Las Huelgas preserves a 14th-century music manuscript, the Codex Las Huelgas. It contains monophonic and polyphonic music which is assumed to have been performed by the nuns. Some of the music is not found in any other source.

The monastery houses the Museo de Ricas Telas, a showcase of medieval textiles taken from the many royal tombs in the convent. Also on display is the tapestry that covered the tent of the Almohad caliph Al Nasir, known to the Christians as Miramamolin. This tapestry was seized by the victorious Christians at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa on July 16, 1212. When Sancho VII of Navarre's men drove through an enchained circle of African slaves guarding Miramamolin's tent, the caliph fled with great haste, leaving this tapestry along with several other prizes of war behind for the exultant Spanish.

One of the many royal tombs at Las Huelgas

Burials

In addition to the founding kings (Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England), the members of the royal family buried in the church are:

Central Nave

• 'Berengaria of Castile': Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leonor de Plantagenet's eldest daughter. Alfonso IX of León's wife. Ferdinand III of Castile's mother.
• 'Berengaria of Castile (1228–1289)': Ferdinand III of Castile and Elisabeth of Swabia's daughter. Nun in Las Huelgas.
• 'Blanche of Portugal (1259–1321)': Alfonso III of Portugal and Beatrice of Castile's daughter. Her grandparents were from father, Alfonso II of Portugal and his wife Urraca of Castile, and his mother's side, Alfonso X of Castile and his mistress Mayor Guillén de Guzmán. She was abbess of Las Huelgas.
• 'Anna María of Austria': Don John of Austria's illegitimate daughter, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor's granddaughter. She was abbess of Las Huelgas. She died in 1629.
• 'Margaret of Savoy, Vicereine of Portugal': Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy's daughter, Philip IV of Spain's cousin, Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua's wife. She was Vicereine of Portugal from 1635 to 1640. She died in 1655.

Historical images of Las Huelgas

• 
  Monastery of Santa María la Real de las Huelgas by Jenaro Pérez Villaamil and Louis-Julien Jacottet in 1842-1850, published in the work España artística y monumental
• 
  "Le Monastére de las Huelgas, près Burgos" by Gustave Doré in 1874, published in the work L'Espagne of Baron Carles Davillier
• 
  "Cloître de Monastère de las huelgas, prés Burgos" by Gustave Doré in 1874, published in the work L'Espagne of Baron Carles Davillier
• 
  Chapel de Belen in Monastery of Las Huelgas by Jenaro Pérez Villaamil and Léon-Auguste Asselineau in 1850, published in the work España artística y monumental
• 
  Exterior portico of Monastery of Santa María La Real de las Huelgas by Jenaro Pérez Villaamil and Auguste Mathieu in 1842-1850, published in the work España artística y monumental
• 
  Interior of the chorus of Las Huelgas by Jenaro Pérez Villaamil and Léon-Auguste Asselineau in 1850, published in the work España artística y monumental
• 
  Entrance of the chorus of Las Huelgas by Jenaro Pérez Villaamil and Philippe Benoist in 1850, published in the work España artística y monumental
• 
  Nuns at Cloister of San Fernando in the Monastery of la Real de Las Huelgas. "La Ilustración Española e Iberoamericana"'s engraving in 1874.
• 
  View of the monastery during Fiesta of El Curpillos's celebration. Late-19th century.

See also

• Codex Las Huelgas

References

• Baury, Ghislain (2012). Les religieuses de Castille. Patronage aristocratique et ordre cistercien, XIIe-XIIIe siècles. Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
• Gayoso, Adnrea (2000). The Lady of Las Huelgas: A Royal Abbey and Its Patronage.
• Shadis, Miriam (2010). Berenguela of Castile (1180–1246) and Political Women in the High Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-23473-7.

External links

• Monasterio de las Huelgas [1]Template:Es icon
• Photos of Las Huelgas, its Royal Tombs and Cloisters