MONASTERIO DE PLA DE SES FIGUERES

In one of the letters that Pope Gregory the Great addressed to the defender Johanes we can read “Where the seriousness of the faults requires the application of canon law, we must not leave aside what must be corrected, not whether, by overlooking it, we give strength to the depraved actions that, it seems to us, we must reap with the sickle of discipline. Because we have received news that the monks of the monastery located on the island of Capria, located next to Mallorca, which is also an island, are acting din such a perverse way and they have subjected their lives to various crimes, which show that, more than serving God, they fight, and we say this crying, in favor of the ancient enemy. You, supported by the authority that these letters give you, go to the aforementioned monastery, to find out about the life and customs of those who live there, through a precise investigation. In this way, everything that you find that should be removed, as required by canonical norm, you must correct by imposing the corresponding penalties, and you must take care to inform the monks of everything that they must observe. Your way of correcting must serve both to return the monks to the path of the good monastic life, and so that in no way you are not guilty of anything before us” (Gregory I, Epistola XIII, 47. Translation made from J. Amengual Batle, 1991, 392-393). There is evidence, therefore, that in the year 603 AD. C. there was a monastic community in Cabrera important enough for the pope to take it into consideration and try to redirect it towards “the path of the good monastic life.”

The archaeological investigations that have been carried out since the 1990s at the Pla de ses Figueres archaeological site on the island of Cabrera have made it possible to document remains of what appears to have been the monastery of that community.

A number of structures associated with wine production have been documented and could also have been part of a purple production workshop. They correspond to a wall, a pavement and a bucket. Based on the results of the archaeological excavations carried out so far, it can be stated that they were in use during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. C., especially during the time of the Balearic Islands belonging to the Vandal Kingdom of North Africa. Although it is not ruled out that said production could have started a little earlier, perhaps related to the Procurator bafii insularum Balearum</i >, of which we are aware thanks to the Notitia Dignitatum Occ. XI 71.

A necropolis was built on the collapses of these structures, active at least since the end of the 6th century and especially during the 7th century AD. C. A total of five tombs have been identified from said cemetery, three of which have already been completely excavated. These three have a bathtub-type pit (trapezoidal plan with rounded ends), with vertical, parallel walls, and with a setback to fit the cover. Its roofs are made up of four or five stone slabs laid flat. In each of the tombs, a single skeleton was found, placed in a supine position, with its legs stretched out, and with its arms next to the body, or slightly folded, resting on the pelvis. The three skeletons corresponded to adult males. None of the burials presented grave goods, and no element was found that would allow us to intuit the presence of any type of funerary box.

During the 7th century, different buildings were built, related to work and storage areas. For now, two rooms of 13 and 17 m2 respectively have been documented.

In Pla de ses Figueres it has also been possible to document a set of buckets and a room that, according to all indications, was part of a salting factory, where fish must have been salted or some type of sauce made. It has not yet been possible to completely confirm that this factory was used by the monastic community, but it must be kept in mind that these types of production fit very well with the activities known to have been carried out by the monks of those centuries.

Mateu Riera Rullán for URBS REGIA

RIERA RULLAN, M., (2013): “El monasterio de la isla de Cabrera (Islas Baleares. Siglos V-VIII d.C.). Testimonios arqueológicos de los monjes reprobados por el papa Gregorio Magno”, 19th Annual International Scientific Symposium of the International Research Center for Late Antiquity and Middle Ages University of Zagreb, Le monachisme insulaire du IVe à la fin du XIe s., Hortus Artium Medievalium, 19, Zagreb-Motovum, 47-61.
ID., (2014, Coord.): El monestir de Cabrera. Segles V-VIII dC, Ajuntament de Palma, Palma, (Traducciones al castellano e inglés.
ID., (2017): El monacat insular de la Mediterrània Occidental. El monestir de Cabrera (Balears, segles V-VIII), Studia Archaeologiae Chritianae, 1, Ateneu Sant Pacià, Facultat Antoni Gaudí d’Història, Arqueologia i Arts Cristianes, Facultat de Teologia de Catalunya i Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica, Barcelona.

Cabrera. Pla de Ses Figueres. (I) Factoría de salazones
Pla de Ses Figueres. (II) Necrópolis