Royal Monastery of Santa María de Sigena facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Monastery of Santa María de Sigena
Native name Spanish: Monasterio de Santa María de Sigena
The Romanesque Monastery of Santa María de Sigena
Type	convent
Nearest city	Villanueva de Sigena
Area	Aragon
Formed	12th century
Founder	Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
Built	1183-1208
Built for	Kingdom of Aragon
Restored	1950s
Current use	Sisterhood of Belén y de la Asunción de la Virgen
Architectural style(s)	Romanesque
National monuments of Spain	RI-51-0000241
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The Royal Monastery of Santa María de Sigena (Spanish: Real Monasterio de Santa María de Sigena) is an old convent in Villanueva de Sigena, a town in the Aragon region of Spain. It was built a long time ago, between 1183 and 1208.

This beautiful Romanesque church was started by Queen Sancha of Castile. She was the wife of King Alfonso II of Aragon.

For many years, until 1301, the main archive for the Crown of Aragon was kept here. This archive held all the important royal documents from the time of King Alfonso II.

The church itself is shaped like a Latin cross. It has one main hall (called a nave), a wide transept (the arms of the cross), and three chapels at the end. You can also see parts of Cistercian and Mudéjar styles, especially in the roofs and windows. The main entrance has fourteen archivolts, which are decorative arches.

History of the Monastery

The Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, a group of knights who helped people, ran this convent. It became very important in the 1300s because kings and queens supported it.

However, its importance went down after the Crown of Aragon joined with Castile. Several kings and queens were buried here. Queen Sancha of Castile, who started the monastery, lived her last years here and was buried in the church. Her son, King Pedro II of Aragon, and two of his sisters are also buried there.

In 1835, the convent lost most of its money. This happened because of something called the Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal, which took away church properties. The religious community left the convent, but some nuns came back later.

Sadly, in 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, the Romanesque convent was badly damaged by fire. People who were against the church, called anti-clerical Anarchist militiamen, caused the fire.

Work to fix the convent started in the 1950s. The Romanesque cloister, which is an open area surrounded by covered walkways, was fixed in 1974. Some artworks are still there, like the royal tombs of Sancha and Peter of Castile. The special chair for the abbess (the head nun) was moved to the Lleida Museum.

In 1985, a new group of nuns, the Sisterhood of Bethlehem, took over the convent.

Amazing Artworks

The church holds the royal tombs of the House of Barcelona. This was the family that ruled Aragon at that time. The Romanesque cloister was once in ruins, but it looks like it does today because it was rebuilt in 1974.

The royal tombs of Sancha and Peter of Castile are still in the monastery. However, the abbess's old throne is now in the Diocesan and Comarcal Museum of Lleida.

The chapter house (a meeting room for the monks or nuns) used to have very important Romanesque frescos. These are paintings done on wet plaster, made around 1200. English artists likely painted them, possibly some of the same people who worked on the Winchester Bible.

It seems these artists also visited Palermo before coming to Sigena. You can see some influence from the mosaics there in their work. Sadly, these frescos were destroyed, but not before they were fully photographed in black and white. The damaged parts that were left, mostly without their color, were moved to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona in 1936.

A painter from the early 1500s is known as the Master of Sigena. He painted a large altarpiece (a work of art behind the altar) for the church between 1510 and 1521. Parts of this altarpiece are now in the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Museum of Santa Cruz in Toledo, and a museum in Zaragoza.

Dispute Over Artworks

The Monastery of Sigena is a very important royal burial place for Aragon. It was even named a National Monument. However, much of its art was taken to Catalonia starting in 1923.

This began with the removal of unique Romanesque paintings from the chapter house. This happened during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.

In April 2015 and July 2016, two Spanish courts decided that the MNAC museum and the government of Catalonia had to return the murals and 97 other artworks and objects. These items were being kept or shown in the MNAC and the Lleida Museum.

Even though the courts ordered the return, only 51 of the 97 pieces from the monastery have been given back. The large mural paintings from the chapter house are still at the MNAC. A group called a Social Platform (www.sijenasi.com) was created to help get all the art back to the Monastery of Sigena. In December 2017, the Spanish government started removing the remaining artworks from museums in Catalonia.

Images for kids

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  One of the sepulchres returned to the Monastery of Sigena from Lleida Museum.

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  Paintings from the chapter house of the Monastery of Sigena at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona.

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  The chapter house and its frescos, before 1914

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  Detail from the chapter house, now in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona

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  Master of Sigena, Jesus amongst the Doctors of the Law, now MNAC

See also

In Spanish: Real Monasterio de Santa María de Sigena para niños