Saint-Michel Abbey of Cuxa - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Foundation and apogee of the abbey

The Abbaye of Cuxa draws its origin from the abbey of Saint-Andrew d' Eixalada, located higher in the valley of Têt, and founded towards 840.

With the autumn 878, a terrible rising destroyed the monastery (located very close to the bed of the river, with the site of hot sources already known in Antiquity), and forced the monks to take refuge elsewhere. The community transferred itself to Cuxa, where a church dedicated to Germain saint was, property of the priest Protais (Protasius) who was, with some companions, aggregate at the community few years before. Protais became the abbot of the new monastery in 879.

On its new site, the abbey continued to profit from the protection of the counts de Cerdagne-Conflent, maintaining with the hands of the family resulting from Guifred Hairy the (Wifredus), Count de Barcelone in 870. In the years 940, a new church dedicated to Saint-Michel is built on the initiative of the count Seniofred. But starting from 956, one rebuilds the building more sumptuously, and the major furnace bridge is devoted the September 30th 974, under the abbatiat of Garin (Warinus), monk come from Cluny and placed at the head of five southernmost abbeys.

This church remains always today, one of the most important pre-Romance churches still upright. Garin, implied in the great policy of the time, will cause the retirement with Cuxa of the Doge de Venise Pierre Orseolo, which abdicates in 978, and will die in the abbey in odor of holiness in 987.

In 1008, it is the grandson of the count Seniofred, Oliba, which is elected abbot of Ripoll and Cuxa. He will be also bishop of Vic in 1017. He deeply will transform the abbey by building ahead of of the church the two superimposed vaults of Crêche ( Pessebre ) and of the Trinity, which communicate with Saint-Michel by galleries. He increases also the sanctuary of three apses, arches the sides of the nave, built the bell-towers. It is a man of great prestige, which went at least twice to Rome, and which proclaimed the Truce of God in the diocese of Elne in 1026. He dies in Cuxa in 1046.

At the beginning of the 12th century, one rebuilds the cloister by giving him the shape of a marble colonnade, with carved capitals. One builds also a platform out of marble in the church. This work is the work of the Gregoire abbot, who is elected archbishop of Tarragone in 1136.

The following periods of the Moyen-âge are less records for Cuxa. The buildings of the abbey are not renewed. The richness of the monastery is however obvious, with a very important land field, and a “quasi-episcopal” jurisdiction on about fifteen parishes distributed between the dioceses of Elne and Urgell.

Cuxa at the time modern

As from the 16th century, the monks do not live so to speak any more the common life. The incomes of the abbey are shared in as many “offices” that monks (the male nurse, the cellérier, the major Sacristain, etc) and each one of them has its particular dwelling in the abbey. The church is transformed by the realization of side chapels to the detriment of the sides of the nave, which receives a Catalan brick vault. The home of the major sexton is built with the site of the vault of the Trinity, which had already had to undergo large damage (or to even crumble) at the 15th century, according to some archaeological indices.

After the Revolution

This monastic life reduced continues until the Révolution. The abbey is then removed and its sold buildings. One arranges industrial facilities and agricultural there. The northern Clocher crumbles at the winter 1829. Throughout the century, the buildings located around the church are ruined little by little; the Cloître is sold, capital after capital, like its fountain, with amateurs or collectors. In 1908, it remains only twelve about it on the spot.

In 1913, a American Sculptor, George Grey Barnard, which already acquired some sculptures of Cuxa at a Antiquaire Paris IEN, goes to the site, and many others acquire some disseminated in the country. These purchases are at the origin of the reconstitution of the Cloître to the Cloisters Museum of New York. Barnard could not, however, carry the series which had become the ornament of the establishment of baths of Prades, for the conservation of which the local population was mobilized at the time of its passage: having acquired, it made gift with the France of it, and these capital X was used for the rebuilding of half of the Cloître in 1955. In 1919, Ferdinand Trullès acquired the Abbaye to rehouse the Cisterciens there Fontfroide which had left the France at the time of the Lois on the congregations. The Cisterciens settle, and will be replaced in 1965 by the Bénédictins of Montserrat. Since the years 1920, the Abbaye is the subject of restoration campaigns by the service of the Historic buildings. In 1936, work is marked by the presence of the Archéologue Catalan Josep Puig I Cadafalch, which had to flee the Spain; the Crypte of Pessebre is released. In 1952, under constructions of the dwelling of the major sexton, the ruins of the church of the Trinity are put at the day. In 1954, Pablo Casals inaugurates the Festival of Prades in the church still deprived of roof; it will be covered in 1957.

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