Porta Coeli Charterhouse facts for kids
The Porta Coeli Charterhouse, also known as Cartuja de Porta Coeli or Cartuja Santa María de Porta Coeli, is a special kind of monastery. It is still active today! You can find it in a quiet, rural area near Serra de Porta Coeli in the province of Valencia, Spain. The name Porta Coeli means door of heaven.
History of the Monastery
This monastery was started in 1272. A person named Andrés Albalat helped set it up. He was the Bishop of Valencia and a close advisor to King James I of Aragon.
Monks from Porta Coeli later went on to start other monasteries. These included the Ara Christi and Via Coeli. Porta Coeli was also home to two important leaders of the Carthusian order: Father Bonifacio Ferrer and Francisco Maresme. Bonifacio Ferrer was the brother of Saint Vincent Ferrer.
In the 1800s, the monastery was closed down for a while. The Carthusian order tried to get it back. They finally returned in 1943, and the monastery was officially reopened in 1947. For a short time, between 1939 and 1941, it was used as a camp during a difficult period in Spain's history. Today, it is the only monastery for men in the province where monks live a cloistered life, meaning they live in seclusion.
Building and Art
Building work at Porta Coeli started when it was founded and continued for many centuries. This means the monastery has a mix of different building styles. The main church is mostly in the Gothic style, which was popular in the 1300s.
In the 1700s, the church got a big makeover in the Baroque style. Inside the church, you can see beautiful paintings from the 1700s by an artist named José Camarón Bonanat. These paintings show scenes from the New Testament. There are also portraits of important monks like Juan de Nea, Francisco de Aranda, Bonifacio Ferrer, and Francisco Maresme. The ceiling was painted by Luis Antonio Planes.
Visitors can't always go into all parts of the monastery, especially the cloisters. This is because the monks live a quiet and private life there.
See also
- In Spanish: Cartuja de Porta Coeli para niños
Images for kids
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