SLIGO ABBEY
A historic abbey with a remarkable cloister and an impressive vault, dark and damp like an underground gallery.
A visit to Sligo Abbey is worthwhile mainly for its cloister and the strangeness of its vault, dark and damp like an underground gallery. But the history of this monument does not lack twists and turns. A Dominican abbey founded in the 13th century by Maurice Fitzgerald (who also founded the town of Sligo), it was destroyed by an accidental fire and rebuilt in the 15th century. It was burnt down again in 1642 when Oliver Cromwell's soldiers attacked the town. An edict of exile fell on the monks in 1698 when the abbey was seized by the Crown. Finally, in the 18th century, a local merchant by the name of Thomas Corcoran took the liberty of extracting materials from the abbey in order to build houses in the surrounding area.
In the church, in the open air, one cannot fail to notice the imposing funeral stele of the O'Connells (1624) and, opposite the entrance, the O'Croans' monument which, around a Christ on the cross, orders (with a chisel stroke that could be thought of as coming from a Romanesque hand, whereas it dates from the beginning of the 16th century) the Virgin Mary and a few figures of saints. The stone altar, finely decorated with grape and rose foliage (15th century) is the only example of a carved altar to have survived in an Irish church. On some of the cloister columns (15th century) are several small carvings: a carved ram's head and a face surmounted by the 'Love Knot', a symbol representing the link between earthly and spiritual love, and which is used locally as a vow stone.
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