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About Paradoxplace

 

SPRING IN SPAIN - 2006

CATALONIA

 

REIAL MONASTIR DE SANTA MARIA DE POBLET

FOUNDED IN 1151

 

STILL ACTIVE CISTERCIAN MONASTERY IN CATALONIA, DAUGHTER OF FONTFROIDE (LANGUEDOC)

 

Cistercian Abbeys of Spain and Portugal

 

 

The simple (but large) barrel vaulted Romanesque nave - with wedding (always a good time for the odd photo as all the lights are on!)

 

The lavabo, outside the refectory, where the monks washed their hands on the way to their meals.  The Cistercians were the most skilled water engineers of the high middle ages, and several of their beautiful lavabos have survived, if sometimes in modified form.  In their huge abbeys in Yorkshire they were amongst the earliest designers of taps.

 

 

Dinner is laid out in the barrel vaulted refectory for the relatively large number of monks at Poblet.  Cistercians eat  in silence - chatting with one's fellow monks was never a reason to join up.

 

Lots more photos to come  .....

 

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