{"id":153693,"date":"2025-02-28T12:15:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T11:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bellesguardgaudi.com\/?p=153693"},"modified":"2025-02-28T12:15:37","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T11:15:37","slug":"when-bellesguard-could-have-been-a-monastery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bellesguardgaudi.com\/en\/when-bellesguard-could-have-been-a-monastery\/","title":{"rendered":"When Bellesguard Could Have Been a Monastery"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ferran Garc\u00e9s<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Sant Jeroni de la Vall d’Hebron<\/p><\/div>\n

Today marks the beginning of Carnival, the festival of masks. Imagine if places could also wear disguises. Bellesguard would be a perfect example of an uninterrupted Carnival because, in its thousand-year history, this strategically located site between the mountains and the sea has changed its appearance many times…<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Roman-era border crossing, a royal palace frequented by a pope and a saint, a tower belonging to high-ranking aristocrats, a possible hideout for a bandit, an Enlightenment-era academy, a meeting place for anti-Bourbon conspirators, a romantic ruin, a modernist summer residence, an orphanage, an oncology clinic, a maternity home, and, finally, in the last ten years, a house museum where weddings, corporate events, school visits, workshops, film shoots, concerts, and more have taken place. Many disguises indeed, and, for very little, we could have added another: that of a monastery\u2014or rather, two monasteries in one.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Failed Merger<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The first owner of the Bellesguard palace, Martin I the Humane, only enjoyed it for a few months between 1409 and 1410. After his death, the property briefly passed to his second wife, Margaret of Prades, and then to Violant of Bar, who at the time was the widow of John I the Hunter, Martin I’s brother. From 1424 to 1441, the palace belonged to Elionor de Cervell\u00f3, although Violant of Bar continued living there until her death in 1431.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That same year, Elionor de Cervell\u00f3 offered the palace to the monks of two monasteries located near the mountains, just like Bellesguard. The first, close to Barcelona, was the monastery of Saint Jerome of the Vall d\u2019Hebron, founded by Violant of Bar in 1393, and the second, closer to Badalona, was the monastery of Saint Jerome of La Murtra, founded in 1413 by the Barcelona merchant Bertran Nicolau. The goal was to alleviate the financial hardship their communities were facing. However, in order to complete the merger, a significant investment was needed to transform the palace into a monastery, and perhaps for this reason, among others, the relocation never happened. In 1434, a second proposal considered the possibility of relocating only the more vulnerable monastery, the Vall d\u2019Hebron monastery, to Bellesguard. This, too, was not possible, and Bellesguard lost its chance to “disguise” itself as a monastery.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Different Fates<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By the late 19th century, all three buildings\u2014the Bellesguard palace and the two Hieronymite monasteries\u2014had fallen into ruin. Today, the monastery of the Vall d\u2019Hebron has fared the worst, having been destroyed by the construction of a road and a gas station. The least damaged is the monastery of La Murtra, but thanks to Gaud\u00ed, the luckiest has been the Bellesguard palace. Even so, in recent years, two associations have been formed with the firm purpose of preserving the memory of these two great monasteries. Below are links to their respective websites:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Association of Friends of the Monastery of Saint Jerome of the Vall d\u2019Hebron<\/span><\/b> https:\/\/www.monestirvalldhebron.cat\/<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More information and images at: <\/span>monestirs.cat Vall d\u2019Hebron<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

La Murtra<\/span><\/b> https:\/\/lamurtra.cat\/<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More information and images at: <\/span>monestirs.cat La Murtra<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ferran Garc\u00e9s\u00a0 Today marks the beginning of Carnival, the festival of masks. Imagine if places could also wear disguises. Bellesguard would be a perfect example of an uninterrupted Carnival because, in its thousand-year history, this strategically located site between the mountains and the sea has changed its appearance many times…\u00a0 A Roman-era border crossing, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":153687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-day-like-today"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Bellesguard Could Have Been a Monastery - Obra Modernista de Antoni Gaud\u00ed en Barcelona | Torre Bellesguard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bellesguardgaudi.com\/en\/when-bellesguard-could-have-been-a-monastery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Bellesguard Could Have Been a Monastery - Obra Modernista de Antoni Gaud\u00ed en Barcelona | Torre Bellesguard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Ferran Garc\u00e9s\u00a0 Today marks the beginning of Carnival, the festival of masks. 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