MONASTERIO DE SANTA MARÍA DE GERRI DE LA SAL

The monastery of Sant Vicenç de Gerri, dedicated to Saint Mary at the end of the 10th century, was located on the left bank of the Noguera Pallaresa river as it passed through the town of Gerri de la Sal, head of the current municipality of Baix Pallars.

This monastery was founded in the year 807 by an individual, the priest Espanell, who followed the procedure typical of the Visigothic tradition; That is, the establishment of a pact between him and the first community members by which he gave them the monastic church in exchange for them swearing allegiance to him. There is no doubt, therefore, that it is a private foundation, although it very quickly received the approval of the Carolingian authorities and, for example, in 840, Bishop Sisebut of Urgell already included it in his will and, Nine years later, Count Frèdol I of Toulouse granted him a precept of immunity. Likewise, from the 10th century onwards, he also established a close relationship with the counts of Pallars, who were linked to him through large donations, sales and exchanges.

Thanks to all this support, Gerri’s house became one of the most prominent monasteries in Pallars and the only one to receive a bull of episcopal exemption from the Holy See. Specifically, Pope John XIII gave it to it in the year 966. This privileged condition allowed it to survive until the confiscations of the 19th century, although from the end of the Middle Ages it began to lose much of its power.

Of the monastery of Santa Maria de Gerri, only the church consecrated in 1149 remains standing, which maintains a good part of its Romanesque fabric, although it has some later additions, especially from the baroque. Entering to evaluate its formal characteristics, it is an imposing building with a basilica plan with three naves covered with barrel vaults and crowned by two semicircular apses. The most striking thing, however, is its enormous proportions and its rich sculptural decoration, which is present both inside the church (nave and apse basin) and outside (doorway, atrium and apse).

As for the rest of the monastic complex, excavations carried out between 2009 and 2010 brought to light part of the cloister and the adjoining rooms. However, all these elements correspond to a renovation carried out in the building at the end of the 16th century. Consequently, to this day, we still do not have any information about the materiality of the monastery that was established in that place at the beginning of the 9th century.

Xavier Costa Badía for URBS REGIA

Ramon d’Abadal, Catalunya Carolíngia. Vol. III: Els comtats de Pallars i Ribagorça (Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans, 1955), 232-237
Xavier Costa Badia, «Los monasterios nacidos a través de pactos en los condados catalanes del siglo IX. Reflexiones en torno a la pervivencia de un modelo fundacional visigodo en tiempos de la reforma carolingia», Hortus Artium Medievalium, 23.1 (2017), 328-335.
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), 200-201.
Enric Moliné Coll, Els últims dos-cents anys del monestir de Gerri (1631-1835) (Tremp: Garsineu).
Ignasi M. Puig Ferreté, El monestir de Santa Maria de Gerri (segles XI-XV) (Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans, 1991).

Monestir de Santa Maria

Monestir de Santa Maria de Gerri