MONASTERIO COMPLUTENSE

The coenobiumcomplutense, dedicated to the Holy Children, Justo and Pastor (martyred in Complutum, what is now Alcalá de Henares, Madrid), It is the first of the large foundations made by the Gothic hermit Fructuoso on the lands he owned in Bergidum Flavium, El Bierzo, in the first half of the 7th century. And he did not do it -according to the few preserved texts- for pleasure, but forced by circumstances: Fructuoso was an inveterate loner, and to enjoy his solitude he had to create spaces in which to take care of his many followers, whom he turned into cenobitic monks, that is, monks who would live in community and under the authority of an abbot or spiritual father and a regulation or rule. He even wrote a Regula Monachorum for them. The continuity in time of the Complutense monastery until the 12th-13th centuries is supported by the preserved written documentation; Some authors even consider that it was in this monastery that the so-called ‘Council of Irago’ took place, celebrated in the year 946.

But there are no documentary sources that help locate said monastery. It will be from the 60s of the 20th century when the idea began to develop that the Complutense monastery was located in the small town of Compludo, that is, in the heart of the so-called ‘Tebaida Berciana’ and not far from the road military of Complutica or Compleutica. And all because of the findings that occurred in the archaeological tastings carried out in 1956 and 1957 by the architect D. José Menéndez Pidal y Álvarez in a farm near the town of Compludo; Findings of which only what is published by an illustrious resident of the town, D. Francisco Flórez Manjarín, in separate articles from the years 1964 and 1967 is known. According to the few and conflicting data known up to now, mainly burials and walls or construction remains .

In addition, in the parish church of Compludo (dedicated, like the monastery, to saints Justo and Pastor) late antique remains (capitals and bases) are preserved; other remains (capital) are preserved in the El Bierzo Museum), the latter interpreted as belonging to monastic cells.

In 2017 and 2018, archaeological excavations were carried out on the same farm – within the framework of the project, Los Orígenes de la ‘Tebaida Berciana’– and the results will be published shortly, but everything seems to point to the existence in the place, in effect, of a good number of construction walls and landslides. But in Spain, the scientific community still does not know what a Hispanic monastery and/or monastery built between the ss. V and X. In those times, the configuration and dependencies that made it up depended on the rule or rules to which it was subjected. And thanks to the Regula Monachorum of San Fructuoso we know what dependencies the monasterium complutense could have, but not with which he was actually endowed. Only Archeology will indicate its true configuration and confirm its function; Only Investigative Archeology will be able to reconstruct the physiognomy of a ‘fructuosian monastery’ as the Complutense one was in its origins.

The excavations will be accessible, in principle, in the summer of 2023, during the excavation period, which usually takes place between the months of July and August. However, to date, the only remains that can be linked, for the moment, to the Complutense monastery, are found in the 17th century parish church, and in the El Bierzo Museum, and were revealed by the archaeologist Manuel Gómez-Moreno y Martínez at the beginning of the s. xx. In the first we can appreciate two bases (one of them, reused, appears under the image of San Justo found on the façade, while the other was located at the beginning from the 20th century in the ‘Rectoral House’, a construction that today is in ruins) and a capital; In the Museum of El Bierzo a capital is preserved, which appeared reused in what is called the ‘Rectoral House’.

The Corinthian capital ceded by the parish of Compludo to the El Bierzo Museum, according to its discoverer, ”It is made up of four first leaves, wide and smooth, interspersed with pineapples, another four equal leaves on top, towards the corners, and in the middle a rosette and leaves well carved; He doesn’t have a collar. It is a good piece, quite original and of the best Visigothic art”. For its part, the capital preserved in the parish church (which also houses one of the most beautiful altarpieces in El Bierzo), is also Corinthian, with several rows of leaves distributed across the width of its basket and collar without relief.

– LÓPEZ QUIROGA, J. – MARTÍNEZ TEJERA, A.M., 2007: “Un monasterium fructuosiano por descubrir: el de Compludo, en El Bierzo (prov. de León)”, Argutorio nº 18 / 43, 1 Semestre, 43-47.
– FLÓREZ MANJARÍN, F., 1967: “Compludo: primer monasterio de San Fructuoso”, Tierras de León nº 8, 55-61.

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