Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça, Alcobaça, Portugal

Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça, Alcobaça, PortugalnAlcobaça - PortugalnFotografianThe Monastery of Alcobaça, also known as Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça (its official name in the Congregation of Alcobaça that headed), is a monastery today located in the city of Alcobaça, in the Central region of Portugal. It is the first fully Gothic work erected on Portuguese. It was begun in 1178 by the monks of the Order of Cisterers. It is classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and as a National Monument since 1910, IPPAR. On July 7, 2007, he was elected as one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal. In 1834 the monks were forced to leave the monastery, following the decree of suppression of all religious orders of Portugal, promulgated by Joaquim António de Aguiar, minister of ecclesiastical affairs and justice of the government of the regency of D. Pedro, Duke of Bragança.nAt the end of the 10th century, a new Benedictine monastery was organized in Cluny, Burgundy, a new Benedictine monastery that sought to follow with fervor the Rule of S. Bento. However, over time, this fervor was fading, the Rule of St Benedict was being eased and in 1098 some monks abandoned their monastery of Molesme, also in Burgundy, to found a new monastery in Cisterin, south of Dijon. The religious of Cisterh sought to follow the letter the Rule of St Benedict, wanted to live from their work and not accumulate wealth. Bernard of Claraval, who had gathered in 1112 at Cisterh, from where he left in 1115 to found the Abbey of Claraval, gave a great increase to this reform that restored to the Rule of St. Benedict all the initial rigor.nWhile D. Afonso Henriques was committed to the Reconquista, they arrived in the territory of Portuguese, already in 1138, the Cistercian monks who would found the Monastery of St. John of Tarouca around 1140.nD. Afonso Henriques, first king of Portugal, gave and coutou to S. Bernardo many lands in the region of Alcobaça, in fulfillment of the promise made in 1147, when the conquest of Santarém. It is about 1152 the beginning of the provisional construction of the monastery, being known in the same year a reference to its abbot. The donation letter was signed by D. Afonso Henriques the following year, in 1153. If you compare the plan of the church of the Monastery of Alcobaça with that of the second church of Claraval, we see that they have almost the same size and spatial disposition.nThe first monks of Alcobaça, known as white monks, had a remarkable civilizing action. They also performed actions of assistance and beneficence through the atica (the pharmacy), and the distribution of bread and alms in the ordinance.nIn the time of general Fr. Sebastião de Sottomaior took great increment the imaginary workshops of the monastery Abadia.nO consists of a church next to the sacristy and, to the north, by three cloisters in a row, each of which was surrounded, in its entirety , by two floors, as well as by a wing to the south. The cloisters, including the oldest, also have two floors. The buildings around the most recent cloisters have three floors. Between 1998 and 2000 a supposed fourth cloister was discovered on the south side of the church. This cloister was probably flattened following the destruction caused by the 1755 earthquake and the great flood of 1774. It is also possible that the remains of the inhabitants of the south wing were eliminated in 1834. The complete building still today has a construction area of 27,000 m² and a total floor area of 40,000 m². The built area, along with the south cloister, will have had the dimension of 33,500 m². The main façade of the monastery, the church and the north and south wing has a width of 221 m, with the north side ca. of 250 m.nBetween 1178 and 1240, the church and the first cloister were built in the pre-Gothic style of the Romanesque passage, and the Church was inaugurated in 1252 -is the first fully Gothic work erected on Portuguese soil. The buildings on the south side were probably built in the 14th century. In the last third of the 16th century, the construction of the Levada Cloister was begun, which connected to the medieval northern cloister. Finally, between the 17th and mid-18th century, the Cloister of the Library (or the Rachadoiro) was built.nThe Church consists of a central nave, two side naves, and a transept, or cruise, creating the image of a cross — a Latin cross plant. It is debatable whether the Church was built, in relation to the high altar, ambulatory and transept, in the current form or if it deviated in a similar way to that developed in the same period by Claraval, having a shorter transept and without ambulatory. All ships are 20 meters high. The chancel is limited to the east by an ambulatory, or charola, with nine radial chapels. The other four chapels will give, on both sides, the transept. The total length is 106 m, the average width is 22 m and the width of the transept is 52 m. Thus, this Church is one of the largest Cistercian abbeys, having been only the today no longer existing abbey of Vaucelles (132 m) larger. Although the abbey of Pontigny, which is also located in France, has with its 108 m two meters more, it has a narrower transept. The church of Claraval, which no longer exists today and served as a model for the medieval part of the Monastery, had the same size. The architecture of the Church of Alcobaça is a reflection of the Benedictine rule in the search for modesty, humility, isolation from the world and service to God. The Cistercians shared these ideas, adorning and building the structure of their churches in a simple and spared way. Despite its enormous size, the building only emerges through its necessary structural elements that go to the sky. This printing was restored through the restoration carried out in 1930. In the same year it was decided to rebuild in the molds of medieval times, eliminating many constructions that have emerged over the centuries. Unfortunately, an organ was also eliminated. Therefore, the limestone-based stones, which make up the wall, were visible, containing many of the carver's symbols. Therefore, it is known that his work was remunerated.nThe choir chairs of the sixteenth century burned in 1810, during the third French Invasion. The main façade of the Monastery to the west was altered between 1702 and 1725 with elements of the Baroque style. Since then, the façade of the church is located, towards the square, by two-story wings with a length of 100 m each. The church itself has acquired two Baroque bell towers and has a 43 m façade, ornamented by several statues. The staircase of the entrance, with its baroque decorations, also dates from this time. From the ancient façade only the Gothic portal and rosacea remain. It is difficult to know the appearance of the original façade, as it was destroyed in 1531. Probably, the church would not have bell trees, thus corresponding to the Cistercian ideal of simplicity.nWith a latin cross plant, the architectural design of this monument, devoid, inside, of decoration and without images, as ordered by the Order of Cistercians, presents an indisputable grandeur and beauty. The central and lateral naves, fully vaulted, are practically the same height, giving the feeling of ample space, to which the lighting process, Romanesque still gives little light and makes it larger. The side naves extend through the ambulatory, and the charola radiate nine chapels that accompany the circular apse, illuminated by high gaps, which highlights the high altar. Holding the upper part of the apse there are arches-botanaants, unusual in the abbeys of Cisterh, perhaps because it is a monument of transition between Romanesque and Gothic. The typical innovations of Gothic art also appear with the appearance of a test, such as the ascent of the side ships to the height of the plant. The transept presents itself with two naves, but when we look at the plan of the church, we recognize three, in the foundations and in the body central.nO inside the building demonstrates the existence of an advanced Gothic, but the exterior of the building expresses cistercian austerity, in this case oriented to more pragmatic goals. Indeed, as cistercian laws required, there were no towers, and the facades, namely the frontispiece, had only a smooth wall with triangular gable. The walls are counter-fortaous, except for the headboard, in which archbotantes appear for the first time in Portuguese architecture. The coronation of the temple, from the outside, is composed of merlons with bevelled top on both sides, on a parapet that rests on a sledgeof modilions. This characteristic gives the whole a military solidity, an air of fortitude.nEstes and other aspects may disprove the scant influence of the monastery of Alcobaça in the history of Portuguese architecture. In fact, the monument has always been seen as an exception in the framework of the Gothic mode produced in Portugal, as a single and experimental piece without descendentes.nO or ambulatory is a complex work. Its interior structure — the presbytery itself — is articulated with the nave through two opposite, straight walls marked by two pillars at the ends and on each side; eight columns of large diameter and robustness, with concave trunk basket capitals and very simplified vegetalist ornamentation, support very apercable broken arches; the dome, ribbed and light, rests on half columns whose root lies above those capitals. The outer part of the Ambulatory is endortised with edifício.nA heavier dome and according to the simplest systems used in the rest of the medieval sacristy, of ca. of 100 m², which was on the top of the north side of the transept, was replaced, in the time of King Manuel I (1495-1521), by a new sacristy, with ca. of 250 m², on the southeast side of the charola. On the other side of the entrance hall, the chapel of the Lord of The Steps was later built. Both the sacristy...