MONASTERIO DE SAN LORENZO DE BAGA

The monastery of Sant Llorenç prop Bagà was located on top of a small promontory on the right bank of the Bastareny river, very close to its confluence with the Llobregat, within the current municipality of Guardiola de Berguedà.

The first reference to this house is from the year 898, at which time we already find a well-established community under the direction of Abbot Senaldo, something that prevents us from precisely locating the exact date of its construction. Foundation. However, it seems that it could go back quite some time, since the latest archaeological interventions that have been carried out have brought to light a basilica and a necropolis that must be placed between the 7th and 8th centuries. In any case, everything indicates that it did not begin to take on a certain importance until the middle of the 10th century, when the donations it received increased exponentially both from individuals and, above all, from the counts of Cerdanya, who became its main benefactors. . Good proof of this is the role played by Count Oliba Cabreta and his family in the consecration of his church in the year 983, since, apart from being his most prominent promoters, they confirmed his immunity and freed him from all secular subjection.

The support of the counts of Cerdanya allowed the house of Sant Llorenç prop Bagà to enter the 11th century in a full period of expansion. From then on, not without problems and periods of clear decline, he managed to maintain his community until modern times, when it was definitively reduced to a secular church.

The architectural complex of Sant Llorenç prop Bagà, made up of the monastic church, part of the cloister and some isolated rooms, has recently been restored by the Barcelona Provincial Council. This action has allowed recondition a space that was in an advanced state of ruin and revalue its remains, but it has also served as a pretext to carry out a deep archaeological excavation of the entire complex that allows us know its structural evolution quite precisely.

These interventions have made it possible to confirm that part of the current church, despite having undergone many subsequent reforms, can be dated to the end of the 10th century, conceding with the consecration of the temple that we have documented for the year 983. In that chronology, a enormous building with three naves, the largest of which is double the width of the lateral ones, all of them covered under a single gabled roof, which was inspired by Saint Peter of Cluny. Likewise, it was also possible to demonstrate that in that same century an isolated rectangular building was built that would have served as the monks’ house, to which other structures were added until forming, already in the 11th century, a true porticoed cloister. Finally, at an archaeological level, it could be attested that this entire complex was built on a previous church with three naves and a tripartite apse that must have been founded around the 8th century, when the monastery could have begun its journey.

Taking everything seen into account, despite the eclectic appearance it presents today, Sant Llorenç prop Bagà constitutes one of the early medieval monasteries whose original architecture we know best.

Roberto Bellini for URBS REGIA

Jordi Bolòs i Montserrat Pagès, El Monestir de Sant Llorenç prop Bagà (Barcelona: Proa, 1986).
Jordi Bolòs, «L’evolució del domini del monestir de Sant Llorenç prop Bagà durant els segles IX-XII», Acta historica et archaeologica mediaevalia, 1 (1980), 55-75; Jordi Bolòs, «Sant Llorenç prop Bagà: dels inicis al 1300», L’Erol, 5 (1983), 21-28.
Xavier Costa Badia, Paisatges monàstics. El monacat alt-medieval als comtats catalans (segles IX-X) (Barcelona: Tesi doctoral inèdita dipositada a la Universitat de Barcelona, 2019), 241-242.
Manuel Riu, «L’eremitisme entorn de Sant Llorenç prop Bagà», L’Erol, 5 (1983), 17-18.
Albert López Mullor, Àlvar Caixal Mata i Josep M. Vila Carabasa, «El recinte medieval del monestir de Sant Llorenç prop Bagà (Guardiola de Berguedà). Campanyes arqueològiques dels anys 2000-2004», a Actes del III Congrés d’Arqueologia Medieval i Moderna a Catalunya, ed. Marina Miquel i Josep M. Vila (Sabadell; Barcelona: Ajuntament de Sabadell ; Associació Catalana per a la Recerca en Arqueologia Medieval; Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura, 2007), 585-604.

Monasterio de Sant Llorenç prop Bagà

Sant Llorenç prop Bagà (Guardiola de Berguedà)