Monastery of San Isidro de Loriana facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Monastery of San Isidro de Loriana Church |
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Monasterio de San Isidro de Loriana
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| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Province | Badajoz |
| Location | |
| Location | Mérida, Spain |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Architectural style | Gothic |
| Official name: El monasterio de San Isidro de Loriana | |
| Designated | 12 November 2013 |
| Reference no. | (R.I.) 51-000005450 |
The Monastery of San Isidro de Loriana (also known as monasterio de San Isidro de Loriana in Spanish) was a monastery built in the 1500s. It belonged to the Franciscan religious group. You can find it near Mérida, Spain, in a place called Badajoz. It's close to the Sierra de San Pedro mountains. This old building was named a special cultural monument on November 12, 2013. It shows us what Franciscan buildings looked like a long time ago.
Contents
History of the Monastery
Building the First Monastery
The Monastery of San Isidro de Loriana was built in 1551. It was located next to the Loriana river. A person named Fray Alonso del Manzanete led the building work. He was from a town now called Puebla de Obando.
The monastery was built on land owned by Juan Velázquez Dávila. He offered to pay for building and keeping the monastery. The building was put on the site of an old chapel. This chapel was dedicated to Saint Isidore. People believed it once belonged to the Templars.
The first monastery was a narrow building. It had one main room divided into three parts. There were only two small rooms and no cloister (an open courtyard). The upper part had seven small rooms, called cells. These included a dining room, a kitchen, an office, and a room for church clothes.
Fray Alonso was in charge of the monastery for seven years. Later, he moved to other places. Important meetings for the Franciscan group were held at the San Isidro de Loriana monastery in 1557 and 1559. During one meeting, a famous Franciscan friar, San Pedro de Alcántara, was chosen for a special role.
Rebuilding and New Design
The first monastery was too close to the river. This made it very damp and caused it to get damaged. So, in 1605, the monastery was rebuilt. It was moved to higher, safer ground. New building ideas were used, showing its closeness to the border with Portugal.
Builders used local slate stone, along with bricks and cut stones. The new monastery still looked simple and plain. This was typical for the Franciscan order, who believed in living simply.
The rebuilt monastery had a small central courtyard, about 5 by 5 meters. It had eight granite columns that held up eight arches. This formed the lower part of the courtyard. The upper part had the same number of arcs. A granite well was built in the middle of the courtyard. Upstairs, there were bedrooms for the Franciscan friars.
Inside, there was a dining area with a curved brick ceiling. The church was small and connected to the courtyard. Other rooms around the courtyard included the refectory (dining hall), choir (where monks sang), sacristy (where church items were kept), a library, hallways, and twelve cells (bedrooms).
Why the Monastery Was Left Empty
Early Life in the Area
The area around Loriana was first settled in the 1200s. Small villages grew up near the monastery in the 1500s. The monastery of Loriana was very important to the local history. Franciscan friars from Loriana often took part in festivals and religious events in nearby towns.
Wars and Damage
Over time, the monastery became less important. It was damaged during the Portuguese Restoration War and the War of the Spanish Succession. These wars happened between 1640 and the early 1700s. They affected areas near the border, like where the monastery was. People from nearby towns sometimes used the monastery as a safe place during these wars.
By the mid-1700s, the area around the monastery was empty of people. However, the monastery itself was still working. It had eighteen monks and three younger members living there.
Final Abandonment
In the 1800s, the monastery was damaged again during the Spanish War of Independence. A few years later, new laws were passed. These laws, called the Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal, meant that the friars had to leave the monastery for good in 1841.
After the Franciscans left, the building was sold to private owners. Several farmhouses were built nearby. Today, the monastery is on private land, so you can't easily visit it. It is completely abandoned and was once used as a storage place or for keeping farm animals. The building is falling apart and is in danger of collapsing. Because of its bad condition, it was put on the Red List of Endangered Spanish Heritage Sites. This list is kept by the Hispania Nostra foundation.
See also
In Spanish: Monasterio de San Isidro de Loriana para niños
