The Interior of the Monastery (Click Here to visit the outside)
The visit begins at the porter´s lodge where the Main Staircase is.
We enter the Cloister called Claustro de las Procesiones. From here we can gain access to the Church and we come back to the Cloister to see the refectory. It is used as one of the rooms of the Museum of the Monastery.
We go back to the porter´s lodge and enter the Cloister called Claustro del Crucero. The mosaic El Camino de Santiago, Way of St. James is exhibited here. We also can see in this cloister the two other rooms of the Museum.
We are in the porter´s lodge. The first thing we see upon entering the Monastery is the main staircase.
The main staircase
It was built between 1747 and 1749 and it is Baroque style. Its great interest lies in the fact that it has no arches or support columns. The column we can see is of a much later, of 1924.
After seeing the Staircase we enter the Claustro de las Procesiones (Cloister of the Processions).
It was built at the end of sixteenth century. It is of Renaissance style. It has round arches and groin vaults. There are sundials in its northern part and a beautiful baroque fountain in its centre.
View of the ribbed vault.
The Church is at the end of this nave.
After
seeing the vault we walk few steps and look to the left. We can see the
sundials and the baroque fountain.
One of
the sundials.
Two
of the sundials.
The
fountain and the sundials.
The
Church
The
Church was begun in the late sixteenth century (Renaissance style) and it was
finished during the eighteenth century (Baroque style). It replaced the medieval church.
The
great central nave highlights with ribbed and barrel vaults.
The
altarpiece at the high altar is of 1735 baroque style. The columns and
ornamentation highlight as statues of St. John the Baptist, Virgin of Mercy and
St. Andrew.
Baroque
altarpiece situated next to the entrance to the Capilla del Cristo (Christ Chapel).
The choir
of the Church is Baroque style.
We are in the Christ Chapel the old sacristy and it is of 1556. There is an altarpiece with a Calvary and bas-reliefs. The statue of Santa Trahamunda and its palm is on left. She is buried in a Visigothic tomb of Eighth Century in this Chapel.
There is also a baroque statue of Nuestra Señora de la Valvanera.
We leave the Church and walk to the Refectory.
We enter the Refectory. It contains A. Machourek Museum with 150 works of art collection of the Czech artist and also works made by students of the Escola de Canteiros (School of Stonemasons).
We leave the Refectory and we look at the bell towers of the Church.
We see to the left the Refectory door and the door we see in the centre of the picture is the Church door.
This is the next nave of the Cloister. We see it from the same point as in the previous photo.
We see the baroque fountain and the bell towers of the Church.
We retrace our steps and enter the garden of the Cloister. We can see the fountain up close.
And now we can see the fountain and the bell towers of the Church… again.
We walk back to the porter´s lodge.
Click Here to continue the visit
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