Sobrado Abbey

Sobrado Abbey
Mosteiro de Santa María de Sobrado dos Monxes
Religion
Affiliation	Roman Catholic Trappist
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Monastery
Patron	St Mary
Location
Location	Sobrado (A Coruña), Spain
Architecture
Style	Cistercian, Baroque
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iv, vi
Designated	2015 (32nd session)
Parent listing	Routes of Santiago de Compostela: Camino Francés and Routes of Northern Spain
Reference no.	669bis-016
Region	Europe and North America
Spanish Cultural Heritage
Type	Non-movable
Criteria	Monument
Designated	3 June 1931
Reference no.	RI-51-0000547

Sobrado Abbey, (Spanish: Monasterio de Santa María de Sobrado de los Monjes or Galician: Mosteiro de Santa María de Sobrado dos Monxes) is a Cistercian monastery in the province of La Coruña, Galicia, Spain. It is situated in the municipality of Sobrado, about 9 km east of Corredoiras and about 46 km southeast of Betanzos, at an altitude of 540 m above sea level.

History

The abbey was founded around 951 by Bishop Sisnando Menéndez, son of Counts Hermenegildo Alóitez and his wife Paterna, who in the following years give it several properties. The abbey was inherited by his descendants and it was abandoned by them. Nearly two centuries later, in January 1142, the brothers Fernando and Bermudo Pérez, two of the most distinguished members of the House of Traba, handed it over to the Cistercian monks from Clairvaux. The abbey flourished during the 12th and 13th centuries and was able to undertake the foundations of its own daughter house, Valdedios Abbey in Asturias. Sobrado was also given the supervision of Monfero Abbey after it joined the Cistercian Order.

After a period of decline, in 1498 Sobrado was the first abbey in Galicia to join the Castilian Cistercian Congregation.

The monumental new Baroque abbey church was dedicated in 1708. Most of the conventual buildings were also rebuilt at this time.

The dissolution of the monasteries enforced by the government of Mendizábal in 1835 put an end to the abbey, and the abandoned buildings fell into decay.

In 1954 the Cistercian (Trappist) monks of Viaceli Abbey in Cóbreces, west of Santander, began reconstruction, having already refounded and restored Huerta Abbey in 1929, and were able to resettle the monastery with a new community in 1966.

Buildings

Sobrado Abbey monastic buildings

The present abbey church, now roofed with a number of domes and cupolas, was built at the end of the 17th century, although the Magdalene Chapel (Capela da Madalena or Capilla de la Magdalena) dates from the 14th century. The sacristy was built by Juan de Herrera. The monastery has three cloisters. The kitchen and the chapter house remain of the medieval monastic buildings.

Bibliography

• Loscertales de G. de Valdeavellano, Pilar (1976). Tumbos del Monasterio de Sobrado de los Monjes (in Spanish). Vol. I. Madrid: Dirección General del Patrimonio Artístico y Cultural. Archivo Histórico Nacional. ISBN 84-369-0070-7.
• Pallares Méndez, Mª Carmen (1979). El monasterio de Sobrado: un ejemplo de protagonismo monástico en la Galicia medieval (in Spanish). La Coruña: Diputación Provincial de la Coruña.
• Daviña Sáinz, Santiago (1998). "El monasterio de las Cascas (Betanzos) (I)" (PDF). Anuario Brigantino (in Spanish) (21). Braga: Consello de Betanzos, A Coruña Câmara Municipal de Braga: 77–102. OCLC 72890459.
• Escudero Manzano, Gonzalo J. (2021). "Los condes de Présaras y la fundación de San Salvador de Sobrado. El intento de una parentela magnaticia por recuperar su preeminencia en Gallecia". Studia Historica. Historia Medieval (in Spanish). 39 (1): 197–213. doi:10.14201/shhme2021391197213. hdl:10366/147373. ISSN 2445-3595.

External links

• Website of Sobrado Abbey (in Spanish) [Broken link]
• Website of the Municipio de Sobrado, with information on and pictures of the abbey (in Spanish)