Monastery of Vallbona de les Monges

The Monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbona (Catalan Santa Maria de Vallbona de les Monges; Spanish El Real Monasterio de Santa María de Vallbona) is a Cistercian abbey in Vallbona de les Monges, in the comarca of Urgell, Catalonia, Spain. Founded in the early 12th century, it is one of the most important monasteries in Catalonia; its church represents an example of transition between Romanesque and Gothic architecture. The abbey was declared a national monument in 1931.

Initially the monastery consisted in a community of hermits, documented from 1157, which followed the Benedictine rule; in 1175, however, only a small group of nuns remained. In 1163 they had received territories from Ramon Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona, and in that year decided to switch to the Cistercian order. Two years later the abbey received several privileges from King Alfonso I of Aragon, and subsequently it could expand thanks to the numerous donations from noble families. Other privileges came from bulls issued by Pope Innocent III in 1198, 1200 and 1201.

In the 12th-14th centuries the monastery created a true fiefdom across the county of Urgell, which was legally confirmed when abbess Saurena de Anglesola (1379–1392) bought the civil and criminal jurisdiction over these lands from King Peter III of Aragon. At the time there were some 150 nuns in the abbey, most of Catalan noble origin.

The Catalan Civil War (1462–1472) and later the Council of Trent (1545–1563) had a deep impact over the monastery. The latter issued a law by which female communities in uninhabited places were forbidden, which forced the nuns to sell several of their lands (1573) to colonists who could form a settlement around the monastery. This settlement later evolved in the current town of Vallbona de las Monges. In the following centuries, strife with the monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet, and events such as the Catalan Revolt (1640–1652), the War of Spanish Succession (1705–1717) and the War of the Pyrenees (1788–1795), eroded the economic prosperity of the abbey.

...
Wikipedia