Location: Ribas de Sil
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The monastery of San Esteban de Ribas del Sil (in
Galician Mosteiro de Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil) is a Catholic
monastery complex now in disuse, located in the parish of the same name
in the Ourense municipality of Nogueira de Ramuín, in the region of the
Ribeira Sacra in Galicia, Spain. It is currently converted into a
Parador de Turismo. It was declared a National Monument in 1923 and an
Asset of Cultural Interest in 1985.
The monastery has its origins
in the Middle Ages, like the other monasteries that exist in the region
of Ribeira Sacra and Tierra de Lemos (the right bank of the Sil, already
in the province of Lugo), the origin of this monastery is eremitical and
earlier. to the 10th century. In the 12th century it became the main
monastery in the region, becoming one of the most notable in Galicia
until its abandonment due to exclaustration in 1875. After a period of
abandonment, at the end of the 20th century it was recovered, being
enabled for tourist use in 2004. It was occupied by the Order of Saint
Benedict.
San Esteban de Ribas del Sil, keeps important
architectural elements, such as the Romanesque cloister called "of the
Bishops" and the church of the same style. It has two more cloisters,
that of the Knights or Large Cloister and that of the Nursery, both in
Renaissance style.
The monastery was associated with other minor
monasteries and different properties throughout the region. It became
famous among believers for the relics it kept, among which stood out the
nine miraculous rings of the bishops who between the 10th and 11th
centuries went to end their lives there, receiving burial in the
Bishop's cloister, from which it takes its name. and then in the
reliquaries of the church. The nine rings, which are given healing
properties, disappeared between the 18th and 19th centuries, and their
history is considered legend. At the end of 2020, during the restoration
work on the main altar of the church, four of them appeared inside one
of the reliquaries that contains the remains of four of the bishops,
along with a note indicating that they were the four that remained of
the existing nine.
The monastery had several buildings outside
the monastic complex in different places in the area, in the village of
Santo Estevo itself there was the doctor's house, as well as a bakery
complex that was located in a neighboring forest. He owned mills and
chestnut dryers (facilities used to dry chestnuts), vineyards, bakeries
and wineries. Normally the buildings dependent on the monastery of San
Esteban de Ribas de Sil displayed its coat of arms in which the nine
miters of the bishops appear.
The monastery is located on the left, southern bank of the Sil River,
in the middle of its canyon, in the parish of San Esteban de Ribas del
Sil, in the municipality of Nogueira de Ramuín in the province of Orense
in Galicia (Spain), the the Ribeira Sacra region.
The complex is
located 28 km from Orense and is reached by the OU-536 and OU-0507 roads
towards Ribeira Sacra until the deviation to enter Santo Estevo, after
crossing the town you reach the monastery.
With an origin prior to the 10th century, the first written
documentation in which the monastery is named is dated October 12, 921,
in which King Ordoño II authorizes Abbot Franquila to carry out the
reconstruction of the monastic quarters and He grants numerous
possessions thanks to the intercession of the influential Count Gutier
Menéndez, the father of Saint Rosendo, founder of the monastery of San
Salvador de Celanova, who describes it as an abandoned and ruined sacred
place since ancient times.
Tradition has attributed its
foundation to Saint Martin Dumiense, Saint Martin of Dumio, in the 6th
century, although this seems to be erroneous. Probably the origin, as in
other similar cases of monasteries in the Ribeira Sacra, was a hermitage
created in the 6th century, at the beginning of the arrival of
Christianity that penetrated following the Via Nova road that linked the
cities of Austurica Augusta (Astorga) and Bracara Augusta (Braga) and
others that linked what is now Galicia with the plateau, and abandoned
after the Muslim invasion. In the 12th century it was already the main
monastery in the region and one of the main ones in Galicia. Initially
it was governed by the Regula Communis written by Saint Fructuoso,
although in the 10th century it passed to the order of Saint Benedict.
On the shield of the monastery there are nine mitres reflecting the
fact that between the 10th and 11th centuries it was the place of
retreat of nine bishops, which contributed to enhancing its fame, whose
rings became an object of veneration as they were awarded healing and
miraculous properties. . This meant that during the 10th, 11th and 12th
centuries, the monastery was very popular, with pilgrimages motivated by
these 9 bishops to the place, favoring the institution in all aspects.
The monastery prospers from the income it obtains from pilgrimages,
donations, wine exploitation and fishing reserves on the Sil River, as
well as from charging for the use of ports and river passages. In the
12th century, with Abbot Ramiro Yáñez joining the Benedictine Order,
reforms were planned to adapt the building to the new rule. At the end
of that century, work on the church began and then, in the following
century, the Bishops' cloister was built.
In the 13th century a
decline began, influenced by the political crisis that gave rise to the
formation of the Portuguese kingdom and the union of the kingdoms of
Castile and León, and the economic crisis caused by the Black Death and
noble struggles, which would end with the reform. of the order of Saint
Benedict at the beginning of the 16th century. After this, a period of
expansion of facilities and reforms began that strongly altered its
structure. The two Renaissance cloisters were built, leaving only some
medieval remains, mainly the Bishops' cloister.
In the middle of
the 15th century it was decided to move the remains of the bishops
buried in the cloister to the church. Alfonso Pernas orders, to dignify
the memory of the bishops and to avoid the interference and
inconvenience that the continuous visit of pilgrims produced in the
monastic congregation, deposit the remains in an ark and transfer them
to the church. In the middle of the 16th century, in 1544, on the
occasion of the construction of a new main altar, the abbot of the
monastery, Fray Víctor de Nájera, decided to deposit the remains of the
bishops in two compartmentalized urns, one of them with five
compartments and the another with four, and deposit them in separate
reliquaries located on each side of the main altar in the presbytery,
the one with four compartments on the Epistle side and the one with five
on the Gospel side.
After the canonical reform of the Catholic
kings and Cardinal Cisneros based on the bull of Innocent VIII Quanta in
Dei Ecclesia of 1487, he joined the congregation of San Benito de
Valladolid in 1499. The lack of vocations that occurred in that period
meant that under Brother Alonso Pernas, at the end of the 15th century,
only the abbot and a monk lived in the monastery. In 1512, after the
bull of Julius II, the monastery joined the Benedictine Congregation of
Castile, created at the initiative of the Catholic Monarchs by bull of
Alexander VI in 1497 and with its headquarters in San Benito de
Valladolid.
In 1516, the neighboring monasteries of Santa
Cristina de Ribas del Sil and San Vicente de Pombeiro were annexed as
priories, which increased income and made it possible to begin a plan to
expand the monastery complex in accordance with the new community norms
imposed by the Congregation that transformed its complexes. monasteries
into symbols of power within the territories under their rule, moving
away from the principles of austerity and poverty of the early times.
The existing buildings are renovated, expanding them to accommodate the
new community, changing the community dormitories for individual cells
that are located on the second floors that are built in the cloisters,
refectory, sacristies and guesthouses are expanded. The abbot's quarters
are expanded and provided with new infrastructure that allows them to
maintain administrative and social activity. They are provided with
meeting rooms, a library, a private kitchen and a bedroom, and in the
case of Santo Estevo, they are provided with a monumental staircase for
access by personalities.
In 1509 some minor repairs to the roofs
and rooms were carried out. In 1562 there was a fire that destroyed part
of the facilities. Around the 1530s, the General Chapter decided to
install a College of Arts in which Philosophy was taught, which required
new spaces to be carried out, apart from repairing the damage from the
fire, which led to the beginning of an extensive reform. In 1588 it
became a College of Arts. The reform that was carried out consisted of
the construction of the second floor of the Bishops' Cloister and the
creation of the Knights' Cloister and the Nursery Cloister. The works
were designed by Diego de Isla and lasted until the 18th century.
Due to the confiscations of the 19th century, the exclaustration
occurred in 1875. After this, the complex was abandoned, the assets were
seized and dispersed. The church is converted into the parish of the
village of San Esteban so it maintains its religious activity. The rest
of the complex deteriorates until it falls into ruin (even the northern
bay of the Large Cloister collapses).
In 1923 it was declared a
National Monument and in 1956 the first consolidation and cleaning work
was carried out by the architects Luis Menéndez Pidal and Francisco
Pons-Sorolla. The Bishops' Cloister was structurally consolidated, then
the same was done in the Large Cloister and at the end of the 1970s the
church was renovated.
In 1985, after the approval of the Spanish
Historical Heritage Law, it was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest
and with the help of the architect José Javier Suances Pereiro, work was
carried out on the Cloister of the Bishops carrying out maintenance
work. The area is promoted for tourism by creating a catalog of its
architectural heritage.
In 1986, the General Directorate of
Artistic and Monumental Heritage of the Government of Galicia
commissioned the architects José Javier Suances Pereiro, Alfredo
Freixedo Alemparte and Manuel Vecoña Pérez with a project to
rehabilitate the complex with the aim of creating a small hostel with
eight rooms. , an assembly hall for two hundred people and a cafeteria
that ultimately would not see the light of day. In 1987 the Board
proposed the facilities as the headquarters of the General Archive of
the Autonomous Administration, but this was also frustrated. The
rehabilitation works continued in progress and it was contemplated to
correct the absence of the northern canvas of the large Cloister, of
which only the bases were preserved, installing a mirror curtain wall
that was very controversial, even though it faithfully followed the
reversibility criteria and did not involve no damage to the monument,
because it reproduced the other walls of the cloister, creating an
optical effect that altered the original proportions by doubling the
scale. Another controversial action was the glass cover of the staircase
that was between the Viveiro Cloister and the Knights Cloister.
Finally, in the 1990s, a hostel was inaugurated that received the
category of hotel-monument, which they called “O Mosteiro”. It had three
collective rooms with four bunk beds each and eight doubles. In 1999,
rehabilitation was planned to convert the entire complex into a luxury
hotel. The project is signed by the architects Freixedo Alemparte and
Suances Pereiro. The project is based on the harmony of the maintenance
of ancient remains with modern construction solutions. The controversial
elements made previously are modified, the large mirror of the Large
Cloister is replaced by a glass wall that allows the interior to be seen
and the pyramidal cover of the staircase between the Large and Small
cloisters is dismantled.
In 2004, the new hotel facilities were
inaugurated, which are property of the Government of Galicia, which
transferred their operation to Paradores de Turismo de España. The
church remains a dependent parish of the Diocese of Orense, next to it
the cemetery, which is located in front of the main façade of the church
and the monastery, and the sacristy remain for ordinary use. To these
dependencies is added the rectory house that is built to the northwest
of the Cloister of the Opispos, with openings open to the main façade,
at an angle to the church.
In 2006 the Parador installed a SPA on
the ground floor and basement of the northwest tower with a jacuzzi on
an outdoor terrace facing the forest. In 2009, thirty-three information
panels were placed strategically located in different parts of the
complex that provide information about the monument and its history to
guests and visitors.
The monastic complex of San Esteban de Ribas del Sil is large and
important. It consists of three cloisters made up of the monastic
buildings and the church. It has a great baroque façade. The monastic
kitchen stands out for its good conservation, a large square room with
the hearth in the center made of stone on four free-standing columns.
The development of the monastery during the 12th century and later,
where different reforms were carried out, caused any remains of the
facilities built under Abbot Franquila to disappear. The oldest remains
preserved are those made in the 12th century under the command of Abbot
Ramiro Yáñez. The Cloister of the Bishops is the most relevant
construction of that period. This cloister, built when the congregation
was governed by the Order of Cluny, was built to the north of the
church, instead of in the southern part, as was customary in Benedictine
monasteries. This was due to the orographic conditions of the terrain
that forced it to be done in the northern part of the church and to
locate the monastic quarters around it between the church and the river,
where the monks had the orchards and vineyards.
Around the
cloister was located, on the eastern side, the Chapter House and in
front of it the refectory, the kitchen and the cellars; In the north
wing were the bedrooms, which were collective, and on the upper floor,
the library. All these facilities disappeared with the reforms carried
out later, especially in the 16th century when the facilities were
expanded and the other two cloisters were built, already in Renaissance
style.6
The renovations that were carried out at the end of the
20th century and beginning of the 21st century to convert the complex
into a hotel, recovering the ruin in which it was located, were based on
the combination of modern materials and techniques with the ancient
ones, using glass and metal, as is the case of the reconstruction of the
north canvas of the Knights' cloister, maintaining and showing the
magnitude of the monument.
The church, which maintained its
religious function as the parish of the village of San Esteban, did not
undergo any reform, except for the tasks of basic maintenance and
restoration interventions.
The church, in Romanesque style, began to be built in the year 1183,
as indicated by the inscription on the shaft of a column at the head,
but, after stopping work in the 13th century, it was not completed until
the 15th century. when the monastery was incorporated into the
Congregation of Valladolid, the last sections of the nave being built.
The entire construction is made with granite blocks.
The main
façade of the church forms a right angle to the entrance of the
monastery, a solution known as the entrance compass and is common in
Benedictine monasteries. It faces west, as usual. It houses, around its
entrance, the small parish cemetery, since the temple fulfills the
function of a parish for the neighboring population.
The temple
has a rectangular plan with three naves with three sections, topped at
the head by three semicircular apses, the lateral ones being higher than
the central one, which is wider, above which an oculus opens with a
small rose window, which on the outside has a strip of small blind
arches with corbels and metopes of varied decoration among which human
figures, a Crucified, lions, harpies, the Star of David, etc. can be
distinguished. The naves are separated by semicircular arches and
pillars with attached columns that collect the ribs of the ribbed
vaults. The transverse nave or transept does not protrude from the floor
plan and the transept is covered by a typically Gothic ligature vault,
like the rest of the roof.
The vaults were built in the 16th
century, replacing a previous wooden one. During these renovations, the
low choir in front of the transept was eliminated and the high choir was
built at the foot of the nave, communicating directly with the upper
gallery of the Cloister of the Bishops where the monks' cells were
located.
The main façade is framed by two prismatic towers built
at the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century
with bells, topped by continuous balconies and pyramidal roofs. Two
large Romanesque buttresses flank the doorway, on which is located an
oculus (at some time a clock was located there) which, together with the
one in the apse, illuminate the interior. Above it is a niche topped
with a cross in which there is a figure of Saint Stephen. The frame of
the door is from the last third of the 18th century. Behind the apse on
the Gospel side is the extension where the ante-sacristy and the
sacristy are located. Built in 1640, it replaced another from the second
half of the 16th century. It is a square building covered with a ribbed
vault.
Inside, the main altarpiece stands out, a work that was commissioned,
on April 21, 1593, to the sculptor from León, based in Galicia, Juan de
Angés el Mozo and the painter Manuel de Arnao. Along with it, three
other altarpieces dedicated to Saint Benedict, Our Lady and Saint
Nicholas, which have been lost, were also commissioned.
The
altarpiece of the main altar consists of a predella and four bodies
distributed in five streets. In the predella or lower part, the
evangelists and the saints Plácido, Mauro, Bernardo, Scholastica,
Gertrude and Lucía appear.
In the first body, the space for the
tabernacle is located in the central street, which has been replaced by
a crucifix, the street niches at the ends are occupied by the figures of
Saint Benedict and Saint Gregory the Great, and in the intermediate
streets there are two reliefs with paths flagellations of martyrs who
have not been identified as they lack attributes, although according to
the hypothesis of some authors they could be Saint Vincent and Saint
Christina in reference to the two monasteries that were associated with
that of Saint Stephen shortly before the construction of the altarpiece.
The side niches of the second body are occupied by figures of
apostles whose attributes have disappeared and cannot be identified. In
the center there is an image of Saint Stephen as the first of the
martyrs, and in the middle streets there are two reliefs in which scenes
appear. of the Annunciation and the Adoration of the Shepherds.
In the streets of the third body, on its sides are the figures of Saint
John the Baptist and Saint Catherine, occupying the central street a
relief of the epiphany that they surround, on the left another that
represents the Circumcision and on the right Presentation in the temple.
In the fourth body, in which the altarpiece culminates, the central
street is occupied by an Assumption of Mary flanked on the left with a
relief of Jesus among the Doctors and on the right with another of the
Wedding at Cana.
Another piece of interest is a carving made of a
pentagonal piece of stone dating from the 12th century, which represents
Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles and which was found on one of the
walls of the Great or Knights cloister. It is carved on both sides and
it is speculated that it could be the front of an altar or part of a
tympanum (it has a shape that is common in other Galician tympanums). On
both sides it shows a Romanesque archway on which the represented
figures perch. On one side Christ appears in the center without further
company, on the other he appears flanked by the apostles. Christ is
crowned with a cruciferous nimbus (a halo of light inscribed with a
cross) carrying a cross and blessing. To the right of him is the figure
of Peter carrying the keys and the gospels, followed by that of James
with four scallop shells and four other figures with staffs and gospels
that have not been identified. To the left of Christ are Paul, with a
staff in his right hand and a phylactery in his left, perhaps Saint
John, due to his young appearance, and four other unidentified apostles.
Also noteworthy is the collection of altarpieces that furnish the
temple.
During the restoration work of the church carried out in
the spring of 2021, when removing the reliquary furniture where the urns
with the remains of the bishops were located, an area of colorful
polychrome was found. Tastings carried out in other areas of the temple
found six mural paintings that could date from the 15th to 16th
centuries, possibly made with the mezzo fresco painting technique. The
paintings are covered with up to seven layers of lime. They represent
the face of a possible monk, a bird, a shield that simulates being
stained with traces of blood after a hypothetical battle, floral
details... All of them signs of a much more extensive mural painting.
The monastic buildings are arranged around three cloisters, the Knights' cloister, which is also called the porter's or Large cloister, the Bishops' cloister and the small or Viveiro's cloister (in Galician do Viveiro). The superb baroque doorway stands out, which together with the church and the small cemetery make up the main entrance to the monastic complex.
The main façade, like the rest of the building, is made of gray
granite ashlar and next to the church it is arranged in rhythm as was
usual in Benedictine monasteries. It was built at the end of the 17th
century and the beginning of the 18th century and is in the Baroque
style. It is made up of a body with three streets, flanked by two large
bands of rustic rigging and separated by four Doric columns that stand
on double pedestals. The columns support an entablature of triglyphs and
metopes and above it a large comb that culminates with a large shield of
Castilla y León with a double-headed eagle with a crown, the imperial
one of Charles V. In the central street, wider than the lateral ones, it
opens the opening of the rectangular entrance door framed with moldings
and related by a split triangular pediment on which a balcony has been
arranged.
The side streets are symmetrical and each of them
consists of a niche, the one on the right occupied by an image of San
Vicente Abbot and the one on the left by one of San Benito. Above them
are two shields, on the left that of the monastery whose main motif is
the nine miters of the bishops and that of the Congregation of
Valladolid on the right.
The rooms located on this façade are the concierge and the abbot's
rooms. The goal is a rectangular space covered with a vault of
terceletes and keystones decorated with drawings of flowers and faces. A
large staircase of honor connects the porter's lodge with the abbey's
rooms, made with palatial taste.
The stairwell, which occupies
the height of the three floors of the cloister, has a square floor plan,
has steps and landings that are covered with flat vaults that rest on
perimeter corbels on the walls. In the center there is a gap defined by
pilasters. The entire complex is covered by a ribbed vault drawn from
carpanel arches, making it almost flat, built in 1739, which has four
decorated rose windows.
The monastery complex revolves around three cloisters. Initially, after the reforms of the 12th century, there was only the cloister located next to the church, on its north façade (or Gospel side), breaking with the Benedictine tradition due to the orography of the land. The nine bishops who during the 10th and 11th centuries had moved to the monastery to reside there until their deaths were buried in this cloister. This fact gave it the name "Cloister of the Bishops". Later, in the 16th century, a major renovation and expansion was carried out, in accordance with the new norms of the community and with the times, in which two other cloisters were built. One of them, the so-called "Large Cloister", "of the goal", "of the hotel business" or "of the Knights" is located behind the main façade and the main entrance of the monastery. It is Renaissance in style, rectangular in shape and large in size, it is intended to receive visitors. On the north side of the Bishops' cloister, the so-called "Small Cloister", "Abbot's" or "Do Viveiro" was built, in reference to an installation, a large fountain that occupied the entire surface of the patio, in which were preserved different fish such as salmon, shad, lampreys, eels and trout brought live from the Sil and Miño fisheries.
The Cloister of the Knights, Large Cloister or Cloister of the Gate,
is a large rectangular space of three heights, originally there were
only two, which opens at the entrance to the monastic complex. It
responds, among other needs, to providing space for the College of Arts
that was established in the monastery in 1562, on its floors were the
student bedrooms. Construction began in the 16th century by Diego de
Isla and was not completed until the 18th century. It is in the
Renaissance style.
The ground floor is made with semicircular
arches that are supported by columns with Doric capitals, except for the
southern part, which is pseudo-Ionic, it does not have a vault. The
first floor is made of a lintel structure that is supported by communes
of the Ionic order and a smooth shaft topped, all with an entablature
with boxes. The third floor, built in 1721, forms a gallery of
semicircular arches that rest on simple pillars with capitals attached
to boxed pilasters.
The center of the cloister had a fountain
decorated with mermaids, caryatids and, as we ascend, Eros with two
eagles on his head which, after the abandonment of the monastery due to
the Confiscation of Mendizábal in 1836, was moved and located in the
Plaza del Hierro de Orense in 1856. The Oseira monastery has been
claiming that the fountain is actually theirs. In 1997, the city council
of Orense made a replica of it and installed it in the courtyard of the
Medallions of Oseira as compensation. Along with this fountain, another
one was brought to the capital, probably from one of the other two
cloisters, and several stone finishes.
After the abandonment of
the monastery in the 19th century, the northern part collapsed, leaving
only the bases. In the rehabilitation carried out at the end of the 20th
century by the architects José Javier Suances, Alfredo Freixedo
Alemparte and Manuel Vecoña Pérez, it was decided to create a mirror
curtain wall that reproduced the other walls that make up the cloister,
producing the optical effect of doubling the size of this. The
renovation carried out for the construction of the hotel opted to
replace the mirror wall with another glass wall with bronze metal
profiles. The holes in the east panda are currently closed and windows
are open in some of them.
The Cloister of the Bishops, also called the Cloister of the
Professions, is the regular cloister of the monastery. It was built
under the command of Abbot Ramiro Yáñez after the incorporation of the
monastery to the Benedictine Order in the second half of the 12th
century. To adapt the old monastery facilities built in the times of
Abbot Franquila, a comprehensive reform of them is proposed. After
beginning the construction of the church at the end of the 12th century,
the cloister was built on its north face. The orographic characteristics
require this location of the cloister even though the usual practice in
Benedictine monasteries is to place it on the other side, next to the
Epistle, but the mountain escarpment prevents it. A single-height
Romanesque-style cloister with a square floor plan is designed,
connected to the church through a door in the southeast corner. The
monastic quarters are organized around the cloister, the chapter house
was established in the east panda, in front of it, in the other panda,
the west, the refectory, the kitchen and the cellars and in the north
the bedrooms, on which are I would locate the library. In this new
cloister, the bodies of the nine bishops who arrived at the monastery
between the 10th century and the 11th century and who already had a
reputation as saints and miracle workers and attracted multitudes of
pilgrims were buried. This fact is what gives it the name "Cloister of
the Bishops". In the middle of the 16th century, after the fire of 1562,
the cloister was rebuilt and given an additional floor, this one in the
late Gothic style with bell arches and small columns, where the monks'
cells would be located on the east side.
The lower floor is in
Romanesque style, it is made with semicircular arches that rest on
pillars and columns germinated with capitals decorated with plant
motifs, harpies, human heads and quadrupeds. There is a bricked-up arch
next to another that leads to the staircase leading up to the upper
cloister and which must have been the entrance to the old chapter house
that has interesting capitals, one represents a harpy with a large tail
that forms a knot and another the Sacrifice of Isaac, an angel holds
Abraham's sword when he is going to slaughter his son, dated to the
third of the 13th century. In the vault, between two openings, you can
see a figure with a book that could represent an apostle, which is
believed to refer to the chapter house and the reading and spiritual
formation that the Benedictines gave so much importance to.
The
roof of the ground floor was originally made of wood. With the 16th
century renovation, a tercelet vault was built, which forced some arches
to be closed and exterior buttresses topped with pinnacles to be added,
giving the appearance that the cloister currently has.
The upper
cloister does not follow the rhythm of the lower archery. It is formed
by openings that open into double paneled or paneled arches that are
supported by thin columns. Above them until 1654 there was a cornice
that was removed to raise some walls in which ovals open, above it there
is an entablature on which a flamboyant cresting appears that finishes
the whole with pinnacles on the axes of the buttresses.
The Small Cloister, also called "Abbot's" or "Nursery's", is attached
to the north side of the Bishop's Cloister. Around it were located the
monastery services and the abbot's quarters that were on the south side,
behind them were the new kitchens that communicated with the refectory
located in the east bay. In the western part there is the passage that
connects it to the Large Cloister and a large staircase that connects
the floors of the three cloisters. Above the refectory were the friars'
bedrooms. The cloister patio was entirely occupied by a fountain with a
large pond in which the monks kept live fish brought from the Sil and
Miño fisheries. There they kept salmon, shad, lampreys, eels and trout.
The Small Cloister was built at the request of the abbot Fray Mauro
de Salazar at the end of the 16th century, in the year 1595. The work
was directed by Diego de Isla although it is believed that it was not
his authorship, an attempt was made to introduce classical Italian
elements so that in the project presented to Diego Isla it was imposed
that it be "of Tuscan order in the arches on the ground floor, with
Doric columns on the upper floor." It has a square floor plan and has
two floors. Both floors rise on semicircular arches with Tuscan columns
in the lower part and Doric columns in the upper part. 16 arches in the
upper gallery were later modified to convert them into lintel openings.
In the southern part is the kitchen, a square-shaped room covered
with nine vaulted compartments with the central one supported by four
buttresses. A large chimney, made of stone, made up of a domed vault on
pendentives. Connected to the kitchen through an intermediate room was
the refectory, a large rectangular room that occupied the entire east
side covered with a barrel vault, above it the monks' bedrooms. After
the fire of 1562, which destroyed all the monastery's documentation, a
tower for the monastery archive was built in the northeast corner of the
Small Cloister.
In the course of the 10th and 11th centuries, nine bishops from some
more or less nearby dioceses retired to the monastery of San Esteban de
Ribas de Sil. After they died they were buried in the monastery. When
the construction of the Bishops' Cloister was carried out, in the first
half of the 13th century, his remains were moved there. The name of the
cloister comes from this fact, where they remained until they were moved
to the church in the 15th century.
The most accepted hypothesis
is that the bishops came to San Esteban fleeing the Muslim advance
through the Iberian Peninsula, although it could also be that they
sought a simple life outside of earthly society, renouncing worldly
values. In any case, the nine bishops have been of fundamental
importance for the monastery by acquiring a reputation for holiness and
being the object of pilgrimage. So much so that the monastery's coat of
arms is made up of nine miters in reference to the nine bishops. The
episcopal rings of these bishops were kept in a silver box and acquired,
like those who had worn them, a reputation for being miraculous and
having healing powers, being used to treat different ailments and
illnesses until their disappearance at the end of the 18th century and
the beginning of the 19th century. .
The first documentary
reference to the arrival of the bishops and their burial in the
monastery is made in a document from the 13th century in which, in the
year 1220, in which King Alfonso IX of León makes donations to the
monastery and says:
I give and grant to the monastery of Saint
Stephen, and to the nine bodies of the holy bishops who are buried
there, for whom God works infinite miracles, everything that belongs and
should belong to the royal right in the entire area of the
aforementioned monastery.
In a document from the 16th century the
name and diocese of origin of the bishops who are buried in the
monastery appear for the first time, these are:
Vimarasio, from the
diocese of Orense.
Ansurio, from the diocese of Orense.
Servando,
from the diocese of Iria (currently Portugal).
Viliulfo, from the
diocese of Iria.
Pelayo, from the diocese of Iria.
Alfonso, from
the diocese of Astorga and Orense.
Gonzalo, from the diocese of
Coimbra (currently Portugal).
Osorio, from the diocese of Coimbra.
Froelengo, from the diocese of Coimbra.
Pedro, whose diocese is
unknown.
The fame of sanctity of these figures acquired very
early led to the monastery of San Esteban de Ribas de Sil being a
pilgrimage destination and the object of abundant donations, which led
to its economic development and its growth, which after its entry into
The Benedictine order in the 12th century led to its comprehensive
reform. The interference that the arrival of pilgrims to the tombs of
the bishops already located in the cloister caused in the monastic
community that had recollection and silence among its vows, caused that
in the 15th century, in 1463 under the mandate of Abbot Alonso Pernas,
They moved his remains, in a single reliquary, to the main altar area of
the church. After the completion of the altarpiece of the main altar, in
1544 the remains were divided into two compartmentalized urns, each
compartment assigned to an individual, one of them, with four
compartments, was deposited on the Epistle side of the main altar and
the other, which It has five compartments, on the Gospel side. These
urns are in the Mannerist style, typical of the 17th century although
with polychrome, possibly later.
The rings were placed in a
silver box and treated as relics, as objects of veneration with
miraculous and healing powers. Even though none of the bishops have been
formally canonized, on January 26, the anniversary of the death of
Bishop Ansurius in 925, is the day in which they are venerated as
saints. In the 17th century, a canonization process began but was never
completed.
The nine rings belonging to the bishops, kept in a silver box, and
guarded by the community of monks of Saint Stephen, were objects of
veneration by believers who came to the monastery seeking the healing or
miracle that these objects could provide them. The rings were passed
over the body of the sick or placed in water that was then drunk so that
their powers could produce the desired benefits.
The miraculous
and healing power of the rings became popular and several miracles and
cures were documented, several of these events were documented in
writing, among which the healing of a girl blind from birth and that of
a cripple who had been in bed for more than one year. It is also
recorded that on the day the bishops' remains were transferred to the
church, the workers did not get tired and some cripples recovered their
health. The rings have been related to the canonical information process
opened in 1622 that dealt with life, miracles and public veneration and
worship of the bodies and relics of the servants of God.
At the
end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century they
disappeared and, after the period of confiscations in the 19th century
that led to the exclaustration and abandonment of the monastery, their
real existence was forgotten, the story of the healings performed by the
ancestors becoming legend. episcopal rings.
In July 2020, the
Government of Galicia undertakes a restoration project of the church of
San Esteban, within a program of recovery, restoration and enhancement
of the cultural equipment of the Ribera Sacra with the aim of it opting
to be declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 2021. One of the actions
contemplated is the restoration of the altarpiece of the main altar that
is carried out during 2019 by the San Martín de Orense Conservation and
Restoration Center.
On November 23, 2019, when I was acting on
the reliquary urn located on the left side of the altarpiece (on the
gospel side) after removing the bones that were deposited in the
different departments into which the reliquary is divided, a bag of gold
embroidered silk (on which four rings and two notes were found, one on
paper from 1785 and another, a kind of parchment label, from the 16th
century, both say
These four rings are among those left from the nine
Holy Bishops. They are the ones who have remained. The others
disappeared. Water is passed through them for the sick and many are
healed.”
The rings were found when the reliquary urn was being
emptied for later restoration. Present were the parish priest of the
church Vania López relates the discovery in the following way
After
two priests removed the bones, another bag appeared that from the looks
of it I thought could contain something else, but I didn't imagine it
could be the rings […] I felt very happy. I have been dedicated to
restoration for many years and this is not something that normally
happens. I was the first to hold the rings in my hands and, obviously,
the emotion cannot be described.
The rings found are episcopal
rings, simple, essential, silver fused with another metal (it is
believed that they are treated with sulfur to change their color) and
some have a gold plating. The smallest is 20 millimeters in diameter and
has lost its stone, another 23 millimeters is decorated with what may be
turquoise and the other two, 23 and 27 millimeters in diameter, have
whitish or cream-colored stones. One of the stones is marked but it is
not known if it is due to wear or whether the stone has been carved as a
seal. The pieces were studied by a research team from the Institute of
History dependent on the Higher Council for Scientific Research,
directed by Therese Martin.
The rings are kept in the cathedral
archive by the bishopric of Ourense, the episcopal delegate of Heritage
and Cultural Assets of that Bishopric, Luis Manuel Cuña, indicated that
Until we verify it, through researchers specialized in medieval jewelry
and even Vatican restorers, we will not be able to confirm its
authenticity [...] the documents that came with the rings are quite
reliable proof of their validity; a kind of quality certificate.
After the reconversion of the monastery complex as a hotel and its
inauguration in 2004, the Government of Galicia transferred its
operation to the public company Paradores de Turismo de España founded
in 1928 with the purpose of operating hotel accommodation located in
unique buildings due to their historical or cultural.
The hotel
complex is rated four stars and has 77 rooms, all of them different,
distributed throughout the three cloisters and with views of the
surrounding forests and the Sil River. It has a restaurant with a
terrace next to the chestnut forest, a cafeteria with a terrace in the
Grande or de los Caballeros cloister, rooms for events and a SPA with
thermal circuits, massage services and an outdoor terrace with views of
the Sil canyons. with jacuzzi.