DESCRIPTION AND WHAT TO SEE IN THE MONASTERY OF LA OLIVA
Al southern Navarre, two kilometers from the town of carcastillo from Ribera Arga Aragón region, is located the majestic monastery of Santa María la Real de la Oliva or Our Lady of Oliva, in full Ribera Alta valley, the monastery oldest in Spain, founded in the 12th century.
It is a imposing architectural complex monasticism from the end of the Romanesque period, representative of the Cistercian artistic style. It was declared National hystoric monument in 1.880 and is a haven of beauty and peace where it is possible enjoy the silence and also from the harmony of monks' chants who still live there, dedicated to spiritual life, prayer, reading, the attention of your visitors and the garden and wine production.
Main Entrance
It faces west. Is a kind of tunnel through which you access the complex, behind it is an enormous pointed arch of two semicircular arch openings, one for the entrance of people and another, higher for the entrance of carriages and horses. One of the first installations on the access door are those of the former residence of the monks, from the 18th century.
Then a rectangular squareTo the south of this is the current two-story inn, the upper one with blinded semicircular arches and the lower one with large windows, the pilasters that separate the arches are in Tuscan style.
Abbey Church or Santa María
This temple has a Romanesque section and another in Gothic style, It is built in ashlar stone and date from the 12th and 13th centuries. It is a three-nave structure. The cover is very beautiful and has twelve pointed and molded archivolts on twelve pairs of columns with decorated capitals with thistle and clover leaves. The eardrum is made up of two circles with architectural details full of symbols.
On each side of the façade, there are two alabaster rosettes that allow the entry of daylight to each of the side naves. In the center, a starry oculus from which nerves emerge that end in two intersecting arches that, in turn, form sixteen spans. On the outside, the center of the façade is made up of the Renaissance style tower, 17th century forty meters high
Inside the church Cistercian decoration with plant motifs, some animals and keys, the galleries have a ribbed vault roof. Upon entering there is a staircase with eight steps. Read more
The church has latin cross plant, six sections, semicircular apse preceded by a straight section, a transept nave with five sections and four apsidal chapels with a straight head. The arches are pointed. Among the ornamental details, the the Lamb of God, the Eagle of Navarre, the Calatrava cross and the head of Christ.
The transept is quadrangular with a deck of Romanesque style dome and octagonal plan, in whose openings are the bells. The central apse has two sections, one straight covered with a pointed barrel vault and the other with a quarter-sphere vault supported on four columns, including flared and elongated windows semicircular arch with alabaster that allows the passage of light from the outside. It is an imposing temple in which the atmosphere created by the combination of elements, the spaciousness of the spaces, the severity of the stone, the play of interior lights and those that come from outside through the alabaster stand out. An architectural jewel that witnesses hundreds of years of history within its walls.
the Cloister
The construction of this section gothic style of the monastery corresponds to the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, is made up of four bays with six sections, archaeological findings reveal that there used to be there another Romanesque style cloister from the 12th century of which the perimeter walls remain.
The arches are pointed and decorated with tracery and supported on fluted columns with open openings. The roofs have ribbed vaults, decorated with keys and figures of abbots and coats of arms that tell stories; The decoration of the capitals of the arches is of the same style. In the center of the cloister there is a garden with yellow flowers and a fountain.
Chapter Room
It is the section of the monastic complex intended for meetings of monks where topics relevant to the community were discussed, the place where it was allowed to break the vow of silence and the monks sat arranged according to their seniority and rank within the abbey. Not in vain, the entrance is decorated with the representation of the Angel of Peace, so that it would reign in all their meetings.
This old room, one of the oldest, is oriented towards the east and is known by the descriptive name of The Precious, unlike other buildings in the complex, this is the original room Romanesque style from the 12th century. The façade has four openings with semicircular arches and is accessed through the central opening. The arches rest on groups of columns arranged in the shape of a Greek cross.
This building is square floor plan, in the center it has four monolithic columns and another eight attached to the walls. The roofs have a ribbed vault with ribs that rest on soberly decorated capitals. On the ground, the tombs of some monks that belonged to the abbey.
Monks Hall
Construction from the 12th century composed two naves with three sections covered with cross vaults supported on separate central columns and on scroll corbels towards the walls. In this room the monks wrote and copied texts.
Kitchen
In one of the corners of the northern section of the monastery is this construction of the 12th century, rectangular in plan and two pointed sections with a roof of rib vaults supported on inverted cone brackets and plant decoration attached to the walls. The fireplace is from the 16th century.
The Winery
Living Room Gothic style, 16th century, is located at a lower level than the rest of the complex, in it wine was distilled and stored that the monks produced. Currently It is a multipurpose room.
