MONASTERIO DE SANT FELIU DE GUÍXOLS – PORTA FERRADA

The monastery of Sant Feliu de Guíxols is located just a few metres from the coast and at the foot of the Les Cadiretes mountain range. The first preserved documentation that mentions it dates back to the High Middle Ages, and would allow its foundation or re-foundation to be placed between the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 10th century, a time of effervescence in the construction and restoration of many monasteries on the initiative of the counts and where, in the particular case of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, the family of the Viscounts of Girona would have played an important evergetic role. The successive donations from other potentates in the surrounding area, as well as the patronage of the counts of Barcelona, ​​would lead to Sant Feliu accumulating a notable patrimonial domain from the 11th century onwards, which would make it one of the most important monasteries in the area during the Middle Ages. It even received possessions in Mallorca as a reward for its participation in the conquest of the island by the initiative of the Crown of Aragon.

The definitive exclaustration of its community, under the Benedictine rule, took place in 1835. Currently, and since 1914, part of the monument houses the main headquarters of the Museum of History of the City of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, while the monastery basilica serves as a parish (Parish of Our Lady of the Angels).

The present monument is the result of more than a thousand years of history and construction reforms. It stands out for its fortified appearance, noticeable above all on its western façade, with two early medieval towers: the emblematic ‘Torre del Fum’, with a semicircular floor plan, resting on a late antique mausoleum, and the Torre del Corn, with a square floor plan, with a Roman masonry base. Also noteworthy is the so-called ‘Porta Ferrada’, an atrium, closed on one side by a set of five horseshoe-shaped arches of different sizes,on columns and capitals of Mozarabic type, above which there is another level, with Lombard decoration and structure, with three sets of triple semicircular arches, remains of a structure that would correspond to a two-level arched portico, dated between the 11th and 12th centuries or perhaps earlier.

The largest construction programme of this monastery took place during the Romanesque period, although the apse and a significant part of the basilica were rebuilt in Gothic style during the 14th century, when new towers were also built. Its last major reform took place in the 18th century, when a large Baroque-style body was added for the auxiliary rooms of the monastery. The current state is the result of the restoration carried out after the Civil War and the wall that enclosed the enclosure is no longer preserved.

In addition to the late imperial structures corresponding to what could be a stately villa (4th-5th centuries), important and extensive archaeological remains have also been located in the subsoil of the monument which, due to context, chronology (5th-7th centuries) and typology (mausoleum at the base of the ‘Torre del Fum’ and abundant surrounding walls, with the presence of a contemporary necropolis), could correspond to a more primitive phase of this notable early medieval and modern monastery.

Jordina Sales-Carbonell for URBS REGIA

-Cervera Berta, J. M., 1984: Història del Monestir de Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Caixa d’Estalvis Provincial de Girona, Girona.
-Blanco de la Lama, J., 1991, El monestir de Sant Feliu de Guíxols (segles X-XI). La formació del domini, Ajuntament de Sant Feliu de Guìxols, Sant Feliu de Guíxols.
-Nolla Brufau, J.M., Grau Salvà, J., 2006: “El monument funerari sota la Torre del Fum (Sant Feliu de Guíxols). Estat de la qüestió”, en Miscel·ània Lluís Esteva, Edición: Lluís Pallí, Institut d’Estudis del Baix Empordà, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, p. 15-30.
-Costa Badia, X., 2019: “Sant Feliu de Guìxols”, en Paisatges monàstics. El monacat alt-medieval als comtats catalans (segles IX-X), Tesis Doctoral inedita, Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, p. 315-316.

Monasterio de Sant Feliu de Guíxols