THE ABBEY OF SAINTE-MARIE AND ITS CLOISTER
A famous abbey founded in 778 during the Reconquest, with a unique feature in Roussillon and a surprising interior.
The famous Sainte-Marie Abbey is an ancient stopover for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela. Founded in 778 during the first hours of the reconquest that put an end to the Arab incursions north of the Pyrenees, Sainte-Marie Abbey can pride itself on being the oldest Carolingian abbey in Catalonia. The building, consecrated in 1046, has a unique feature in Roussillon: a west-facing chevet, and not east-facing at a time when all religious monuments were oriented towards the tomb of Christ. The interior is surprising because of the height of the nave (17 m) and a certain austerity, which led Prosper Mérimée to describe the building as "imposing and severe". When entering the cloister, next to the church, one is immediately struck by its elegant lightness. The ogives are made of Céret marble, and the grey limestone of Girona was chosen to slender the geminated columns. The ambulatory is not vaulted. In addition to the silence and the quietude, it is the play of the shadows and the light which makes the charm of this sober and graceful Gothic unit.
The Holy Tomb : on the church square, a 4th century sarcophagus contains very pure water since it sheltered the relics of Saints Abdon and Sennen, patrons of Arles. It produces continuously about 250 liters per year without being fed by any source. Since it is impossible to explain the origin of this water, it has become an object of veneration which, in itself, contributed to the fame of the abbey.
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