HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LEYRE MONASTERY
“Leyre is the greatest relic of Navarra. Perhaps Navarra would not exist if Leyre did not exist. In its old stones is the reason for the Pyrenean Kingdom, which was born precisely in these mountains and in these lands.”
In Yesa, surrounded by forests and trails of the Sierra de Leyre, is the Monastery of San Salvador, it is of the most important monuments of Navarra, is on the route of Camino de Santiago Aragonese and is inhabited by an order of Benedictine monks.
The Monastery of San Salvador de Leyre
It is an architectural complex Romanesque style, raised on a natural balcony of the skirt south of the Leyre mountain range from where you can see the valley of the Aragón River. In a pantheon of this monastery the first kings of Pamplona rest.
Although there are no records of its foundation, Saint Eulogius the Martyr of Córdoba wrote about his stay in this monastery. towards the end of the 9th centuryIn the year 848.
The stones used in the construction of the buildings of the architectural complex were extracted from a nearby quarry, are golden with reddish veins and quartz inlays.
On a wall To the north of the complex is the royal mausoleum, inside a hole closed by an iron fence from the 15th century, in an oak chest decorated with neo-Gothic ironwork, lie the remains of at least XNUMX members of the first Navarrese dynasty. The decoration of the venue has the image of a 17th century Christ.
En the south wall lies the access to the chapel through a Romanesque style doorway from the 12th century, with two windows and attached columns with decorated capitals. The chapel has a Gothic vault roof and inside there is a Renaissance altarpiece from the 17th century in honor of Saint Alodia and Nunilo, two teenage sisters with a Muslim father and a Catholic mother who were tried and condemned for their Christian faith in the year 851.
Queen Oneca ordered the transfer of the girls' bodies to the Monastery of Leyre and their first miracles took place there: Read more
- The healing of King García Sánchez who, in 1501, went to the monastery to ask the saints for his health.
- In 1638, a crippling drought threatened the crops, the people came in a pilgrimage to implore for rain, then the prior immersed a bone in the fountain of the virgins and when he took it out, blood dripped and instantly it started to rain.
Since then, devotion to Saints Alodia and Nunilo spread to every town in Navarra and Aragon.
The church of San Salvador de Leyre
She is the protagonist of the monastery. She has been operated on numerous times throughout history, she still retains Romanesque style sections from the 11th and 12th centuries, to whom later they were Gothic elements added.
the temple is of three ships, asymmetrical to each other, the central one is the widest, the arches are horseshoe-shaped and the pillars are cross-shaped with attached columns that converge towards the central apse. The decoration of the capitals is austere with volutes, striations and geometric motifs. The roof of the nave is a structured vault in four sections with heraldic medallions in the keys.
The header is the oldest Romanesque construction One of those preserved in Navarra, it was built on the crypt and has three semicircular apses with a barrel vault roof.
The Crypt
Despite, apparently, not having been used as a burial place, this crypt stands out for its dimensions, height and discreet columns with enormous capitals decorated with geometric and animal motifs. Has square floor plan, four naves, three apses and the roofs are barrel vaulted. The access gate is one of the oldest and in a very sober Romanesque style, it has three overlapping and staggered semicircular arches
Next to the crypt, there is a tunnel called of San Virila by a 17th century sculpture of this saint. The passage led from the crypt to the fields around the monastery, currently remains blinded.
The Porta Speciosa
The Porta Speciosa, just like its name, is truly beautiful. It is a porch built in the 12th century. It has three sections: The tympanum is circular with six figures representing San Salvador, the Virgin, San Pedro, San Juan and two evangelists. The archivolts on the tympanum decorated with motifs in Romanesque style relief. Three columns attached to the sides, with beautifully decorated capitals; and the frieze over the archivolts in which biblical scenes are represented.
Tower
It is estimated that its construction corresponds to the XNUMXth century, due to the particularities of its design that it has quadrangular plan, on the sides the windows have triple arches, crowned by simple columns. The apses have a circular shape with narrow windows and an eave cornice composed of chamfered blocks.
