Monasterio de Sant Quirze de Colera

The monastery of Sant Quirze de Colera was located in the middle of the small valley drawn by the Reguerada stream, on the southern slope of the Albera mountain range, within the municipality of Rabós.

The first unquestionable reference to this monastery is from the year 927, when its abbot Manuel bought a vineyard and land in the same valley of Sant Quirze. Now, possibly its origins are much older, since eight years later, at the time of its consecration by Bishop Guiu of Girona, we are told about the abbots who had preceded Manuel and their abbey as a phase of rebuilding and renewal of the monastic church. Furthermore, although they do not agree on the scope of the construction program that began at the beginning of the 10th century, all the archaeologists who have studied the church of Sant Quirze identify a first phase around the 8th-9th centuries. Therefore, perhaps we should not completely discard the information given to us by a trial supposedly held in the year 844 in Toulouse between Count Aleric of Empúries and the monk Guiemon of Colera, in which it is explained that their monastery had been founded some fifty years earlier by his uncle Libencio and his father Asenario, two individuals who had received a precept from Charlemagne authorizing them to clear the entire area of Peralada.

Be that as it may, and without ruling out that there had been an intermediate phase without a community, there is no doubt that at the beginning of the 10th century the situation of Colera changed in a very notable way, since, coinciding with the reform carried out by Abbot Manuel in the 935, it began to benefit from the patronage of the counts of Empúries. This support helped to significantly increase the prestige of the institution, as proven by the numerous testamentary donations it received during those years. From here, Sant Quirze began a long period of growth that would last until the end of the 13th century, when, affected by several episodes of war, it began a slow decline that would lead to its definitive abandonment in 1592.

The monastic complex of Sant Quirze de Colera is made up of two churches, a partially preserved cloister and some minor outbuildings. The main temple, dedicated to San Quirico, is an imposing Romanesque-style building, built in its most of it in the middle of the 11th century, with a plan of three naves topped by a transept and three semicircular apses. The other, dedicated to Saint Mary, is much simpler and a little later, as evidenced by the pointed barrel vault that covers its only nave. This last church acted as the local parish, while the other served the monastic community. Therefore, only it has direct access to the cloister, of which only the layout and part of a gallery can be observed. Finally, among the preserved monastic buildings, mostly later from the late medieval or modern period, a tower stands out that must be associated with the fortification of the complex at the end of the 13th century.

As regards the building from the early medieval period, the archaeological work carried out in the monastery has brought to light the foundation of an apse which, according to all indications, would correspond to a church prior to that of the 11th century, probably the one that Abbot Manuel renovated at the beginning of the 10th century. Therefore, although the data is very scarce, too scarce to be able to infer even a floor plan, we know that it was a complex located in the same place as the current one, but of lesser importance. .

Xavier Costa Badía for URBS REGIA

Dolors Codina Reina, «Sant Quirze de Colera. Un jaciment arqueològic excepcional», Annals de l’Institut d’Estudis Empordanesos, 43 (2012), 39-63.
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), 329-331.
Albert Pibernat López, «Primera acta de consagració de l’església del monestir de Sant Quirze de Colera (935)», Annals de l’Institut d’Estudis Empordanesos, 41 (2010), 277-94.
Albert Pibernat López, «Sant Quirze de Colera. Límits territorials», Annals de l’Institut d’Estudis Empordanesos, 37 (2004), 85-95.
Gisela Ripoll et al., «Sancti Cirici de Colera / Sant Quirze de Colera (Alt Empordà, Girona). Estudio preliminar del conjunto monástico, siglos VIII al XVI», Hortus Artium Medievalium, 23.2 (2017), 602-628.

Monestir de Sant Quirze de Colera

Sant Quirc de Colera (Rabós d’Empordà)