San Cugat

We were in Sant Cugat on Sunday. This is a part of the handle of the door to the main church in the monastery....I find it intriguing.

The buildings have been largely and vastly reconstructed because in the early 1800's, after the monks were forced to flee, the local population largely destroyed the buildings. Out of revenge, out of poverty, out of retribution, to search for riches, goodies and easy building supplies, but mostly to find and destroy the documents that held them in serfdom on the land. They could finally, for the first time in generations, own the land they worked.

This is a modern concrete fabrication of the very damaged original pedestal for a column in the cloister,

And his back end too.

At the tops of all of the columns, the capitals, there were different carvings, each and every one unique. Some displaying incident in the life of Jesus, others animals, and others I know not what, I like this fellow though...he seems medieval and modern, and content and thoughtful.

This is the cloister itself, the pavings and diggings you can see in the middle are the remains of a paleoChristian church, which was itself built on the remains of a Roman villa. It's been a busy place for a long long time.