Santa María de Óvila facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Santa María de Óvila |
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The ruins of Santa María de Óvila in Spain, shown more than 75 years after the most striking architectural features were removed by agents of William Randolph Hearst
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| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Roman Catholic Church |
| Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Abbey |
| Year consecrated | 1213 |
| Status | Abandoned |
| Location | |
| Location | Trillo, Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural type | Monastery, Church |
| Architectural style | Gothic, Renaissance |
| Groundbreaking | 1181 |
| Completed | 1213 |
| Official name: Monasterio de Santa María Óvila | |
| Type | Monument |
| Designated | 4 June 1931 |
| Reference no. | (R.I.)-51-0000612-00000 |
The Santa María de Óvila was a Cistercian monastery in Spain. It was built starting in 1181. The monastery was located on the Tagus River near Trillo, Guadalajara. This area is about 90 miles (145 km) northeast of Madrid.
For about 400 years, the monastery grew and became very successful. Many building projects made it larger and better. However, its luck changed in the 1700s. In 1835, the Spanish government took control of it. They sold it to private owners. These new owners used the old monastery buildings to keep farm animals.
In 1931, an American newspaper owner named William Randolph Hearst bought parts of the monastery. He wanted to use its stones to build a huge, fancy castle in California. About 10,000 stones were taken apart and shipped to San Francisco. But they were left there for many years.
Today, these stones are in different places in California. The old church's main entrance, called a portal, was put up at the University of San Francisco. The chapter house (a meeting room) was rebuilt by Trappist monks. This is at the Abbey of New Clairvaux in Vina, California. Other stones are used as decorations in Golden Gate Park's botanical garden. To help rebuild the chapter house, a special line of Belgian-style beers was made. It was called the Ovila Abbey brand.
In Spain, the new government declared the monastery a National Monument in June 1931. But this happened too late to stop the stones from being moved. Today, the remaining buildings and walls are on private farmland.
History of the Monastery
How the Monastery Started
The Santa María de Óvila monastery began in 1175. King Alfonso VIII of Castile gave land to Cistercian monks. These monks were from Valbuena Abbey in Spain. The king wanted to set up Catholic places on land he had won from the Moors. The Cistercian monks wore plain white clothes. They first chose a spot by the Tagus River. But after a few years, they moved to a better area. This new spot was a flat hilltop closer to Trillo, Guadalajara.
Building started in 1181. The monks' living areas and the church were built over the next 30 years. The main cloister (an open courtyard) was surrounded by buildings. The church was on the north side. A large hall was on the west. The sacristy, a small cell, and the chapter house were on the east. The kitchen, pantry, and refectory (dining hall) were on the south. Some buildings had very thick walls, about 7 feet (2 meters) wide. They also had narrow windows. These were for safety if the Moors returned. The church was shaped like a Latin cross. It had a main area divided into four parts. It also had a special area with three square apses (rounded ends).
In 1191, the king officially said the monastery belonged to the Cistercian Order. The old abbot of Santa María de Huerta, Bishop Martín de Finojosa, blessed the church in September 1213. He died just days later. The areas around Murel and Trillo became wealthy. People gave money and land to the monastery. A special book of documents, called Cartulario de Óvila, is now kept at the Complutense University of Madrid.
The first buildings, including the church, were built in the Gothic style. The dining hall shows a mix of older Romanesque and newer Gothic styles. A beautiful chapter house was made from high-quality limestone. The church was rebuilt before 1650 in a later Gothic style. It had a grand vaulted ceiling. The cloister was rebuilt around 1617. It had a simple design with a Renaissance archway. The last building work happened around 1650. A new church doorway was added. It was in a detailed late Renaissance and Plateresque style. Because it was so successful and expanded many times, Santa María de Óvila showed examples of every Spanish religious building style from 1200 to 1600. Even at its best, Óvila was one of the smallest Cistercian monasteries in the region of Castile.
The Monastery's Decline
Starting in the 1400s, the areas around Santa María de Óvila began to change. This led to a slow decline. Wars caused villages in the Tagus valley to lose people. The monastery's land slowly went to new rich families. First, the Count of Cifuentes took land. Then, Rui Gomes da Silva, Duke of Pastrana, and the Spanish Army took more. Neighbors also stole some lands.
A fire damaged part of the monastery during the War of the Spanish Succession. During the Peninsular War, French soldiers robbed the buildings. They used them as barracks (places for soldiers to live). The monks had to leave in 1820. This was because a new government took away church property. But they came back in 1823 when King Ferdinand VII brought back old traditions. However, nearby villagers did not support the monastery, even with the king's help. The monastery finally closed in 1835. A law said that small religious places with fewer than 12 people had to be given to the state. The monastery only had four monks and one helper. They were forced to leave.
Empty Buildings and New Owners
After the monastery closed, many of its valuable items went to nearby churches. These included Ruguilla, Huet, Sotoca de Tajo, and Carrascosa de Tajo. Other valuable things, like books and old papers, were stolen and sold. The remaining items were sold in an auction. This included wine-making tools and an oxcart. A very important 328-page book of the monastery's history was sold to a private owner. But in 1925, it was given to the Monastery of Santa María la Real of Oseira. This thick book has copies of royal permissions given to the monastery over time. It also has a full history of the Cistercian abbots and monks who lived there. A monk named Father Gerofeo wrote this history from 1729 to 1730.
The new owners of Santa María de Óvila were rich farmers. They did not care much for the buildings. For a short time, the old monastery was used as a guesthouse. But mostly, the buildings were used for farming. They became barns for animals. The chapter house was even used as a manure pit. Other buildings were used for storage. In the early 1900s, small trees were growing on the monastery roofs. The protective roof tiles had been taken down and sold a long time ago.
Moving to California
In 1928, the Spanish government sold the monastery to Fernando Beloso. He paid a little over 3,100 pesetas, which was about $600 to $700 back then. Beloso was the director of a Spanish bank in Madrid. He owned land around the monastery.
Arthur Byne was an art agent in Madrid. His biggest client was the American newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst. Byne was looking for an old monastery for Hearst in 1930. In 1925, Byne had bought Hearst another monastery. It was taken apart and shipped to New York. (Later, in 1954, it was rebuilt in Florida as a tourist spot. It is now a church called St. Bernard de Clairvaux Church.) Byne asked Beloso for help finding another monastery. Beloso invited him to see the Óvila monastery in December 1930. Byne then sent photos and drawings to Hearst for approval. Byne listed specific parts to be removed. These were mostly architectural details. He mentioned things like arch ribs, door frames, window openings, columns, and column tops. He also suggested taking entire walls of good stone. He called the project "Mountolive." This was probably to trick Spanish officials. They were supposed to protect historical items.
Hearst loved the idea. So, Beloso sold Byne the stones for $85,000. This included the cloister, the chapter house, the dining hall, and the monks' sleeping area. With Byne's fee, Hearst was to pay $97,000. This amount would be worth about $1.7 million today. Byne started the project right away. He organized workers and materials. He began taking the stones apart. Hearst's main architect, Julia Morgan, sent her assistant, Walter T. Steilberg. Steilberg arrived on March 9, 1931. He told Hearst to buy the old church portal, which Hearst did for $1,500. Byne and Steilberg made sure the monastery was carefully labeled as it was taken apart stone by stone. Antonio Gomez, the local foreman, numbered the blocks on drawings. He also painted the number in red on the back of each stone.
To move all the stones, Byne and Steilberg built a road to the Tagus River. A special barge was used to carry stones across the river. An old World War I trench railway was brought in. It moved stones from the monastery to the ferry. Its tracks could be laid inside any of the buildings. Workers pushed small rail cars along the narrow tracks. Then, cranes lifted the stones onto the ferry. Another crane lifted them from the ferry onto trucks. One big problem Byne faced was packing material. Spain's three factories could not make enough excelsior (wood shavings) to pack all the crates. At one point, Steilberg suggested slicing the stones into thinner pieces. This would make them easier to pack and ship. But Hearst wanted to keep the full-sized stones. Byne and Steilberg decided some walls and utility buildings were not worth taking. They left them in Spain. Steilberg went home at the end of March.
Byne hurried the project. He was afraid the authorities might stop it. Spanish law did not allow historical items to be removed. But the Spanish government was in chaos then. They did not enforce the law. Officials "simply looked the other way" as trucks carried 700-year-old stones through Valencia to the docks. When King Alfonso XIII left the throne in April 1931, the new government stopped the project. Byne's lawyer convinced the Minister of Labor to let the work continue. He argued that the project employed over a hundred men. This helped the struggling economy.
Doctor Francisco Layna Serrano had tried for years to save the monastery. But he could not get the government interested. He realized this was his last chance to record the place. So, he wrote a book about its history. He included a map of the buildings, drawn from memory. Because of his efforts, on June 3, 1931, Santa María de Óvila was named a National Monument of Spain. This is also called a Bien de Interés Cultural (Cultural Property). Layna Serrano published his book in 1932. In 1933, the monastery's historic book of documents was brought to the University of Madrid and published. The original was kept at the University of Oviedo.
By the time the dismantling finished on July 1, 1931, about 10,000 stones were shipped. They weighed a total of 2,200 short tons (2,000 metric tons). They traveled on 11 different ships through the Panama Canal to San Francisco. In 1931 money, the monastery project cost Hearst about one million dollars.
The Spanish Ruins Today
Today, only a few buildings remain of the original monastery in Spain. The winery, or bodega, is the oldest building still standing. It was built in the 1200s. Its upper floor was a sleeping area, about 27 by 90 feet (8 by 27 meters). It had a long arched ceiling. Outside the winery, you can see crumbling walls. There are also open areas and part of the church's Gothic roof. The double arches in the walls of the Renaissance-era cloister are still there. But the arched roof is gone. The church's foundation can also be seen.
The Monastery in California
Hearst's Wyntoon Plan
Hearst first bought the monastery to use its stones at Wyntoon. This was his family's retreat in Northern California. It was near Mount Shasta. The original building there had burned down in 1929. Hearst wanted to replace it with a large stone building. He planned for it to have towers and turrets. It was meant to be a unique castle, even bigger than the old one. To get ready for the Spanish stones, Julia Morgan drew plans. The monastery's chapter house would be the castle's entrance hall. The large church would hold a swimming pool. Other stones would cover walls and rooms on the ground floor.
At the Port of San Francisco, Steilberg checked each shipment of stones. There were thousands of crates. A warehouse was used for storage. It was near Fisherman's Wharf. Hearst had planned to start building in July 1931. But the last ship with stones was still on its way. Hearst stopped his grand plan for Wyntoon. His money had greatly decreased because of the Great Depression. The stones stayed in the warehouse. This cost $15,000 a year in storage fees during the 1930s.
Golden Gate Park's Stones
In 1940, Hearst decided to give the monastery stones away. The government of Francisco Franco in Spain asked for them back. But Hearst said no. In August 1941, Herbert Fleishhacker was the director of the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum. He convinced Hearst to give the stones to the City of San Francisco. In return, the city would pay Hearst's $25,000 storage debt. Hearst said the stones must be used to build museum buildings next to the de Young Museum. This was in Golden Gate Park. The city moved the crates from the warehouse. They stored them outside behind the museum and the Japanese Tea Garden. They only spent $5,000 to move them and build simple shelters. The museum plan was estimated to cost $500,000. But that much money was not available. Morgan made several plans for the city to choose from. Each plan had the buildings arranged differently than in Spain. However, in December 1941, the U.S. entered World War II. The museum plans were put on hold. The city picked up the project again in 1946. They paid Morgan to build a small model of the complex. It was to be the Museum of Medieval Arts. This would be like The Cloisters in New York.
The city could not raise money to build the museum. The stones were damaged in five fires. The first fire happened soon after the crates were put in Golden Gate Park. Morgan said that "piles of burning boxes were pulled over and down by the Fire Department." Two fires in 1959 seemed to be set on purpose. Many fire-heated stones cracked when suddenly cooled by water. In 1960, Steilberg was hired to check the stones again. He tapped each stone with a hammer. He listened for a solid sound. A dull thud meant it was cracked. He found that a little more than half the stones were still good.
In 1965, the Museum Society raised $40,000. They used it to put up the grand portal of the old church. It was placed in the de Young Museum. It became the main feature of Hearst Court, the main exhibit hall. The museum gave up on the rest of the stones in May 1969. They announced there would be no more rebuilding. After this, park workers sometimes took stones. They used them to decorate Golden Gate Park.
Around 1989 or 1990, a city worker put an unused granite bollard (a short post) among the monastery stones. This 4-foot (1.2 m) tall bollard was once a traffic barrier. Some people who used the park for Hindu worship started to worship the bollard. They called it a lingam. They moved some of the monastery stones into a religious circle. They called the circle Shiva Linga. The city sued to get the area back in 1993. But they lost in court. In January 1994, the city moved the bollard to the leader's garage. He used it as his temple. Later, he offered the bollard for sale. He admitted the whole thing was a performance art piece.
In 1999, some of the stones were used. They built an outdoor reading area next to the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture. This is part of the Strybing Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park. Other stones were used for different purposes around Golden Gate Park. Some ended up in the park's AIDS Memorial Grove. Others were used in a flower walkway called Garden of Fragrance.
University of San Francisco's Portal
In 2002, the de Young Museum gave the old church portal to the University of San Francisco. This is a Jesuit university. In 2008, it was used in the building of Kalmanovitz Hall. It now stands as the background for the outdoor Ovila Amphitheater. This is near an older Romanesque portal from Northern Italy.
Abbey of New Clairvaux's Chapter House
Fr. Thomas X.Davis, a monk from the Abbey of New Clairvaux, first saw the stones. He imagined them rebuilt as a monastery. This was on September 15, 1955. It was his first day in California. He had arrived in San Francisco to be a new monk in Vina, California. His monastery was called Our Lady of New Clairvaux. It belonged to the Trappists. The monks farmed and prayed on land once used by Leland Stanford to grow grapes. Davis's leader met him at the airport. He drove him through Golden Gate Park. He stopped to show Davis the stones sitting among the weeds. Over the years, Davis checked the stones. He saw they were getting worse.
In 1981, a historian named Margaret Burke started working. She had money from the Hearst Foundation. Her job was to list all the remaining stones. She said it was "an excavation project." This was because of the weeds, blackberry bushes, and tree roots growing over them. Burke found that about 60% of the stones belonged to the chapter house. This was a rectangular building. It was originally about 31 by 46 feet (9.4 by 14 meters). She separated the chapter house stones. She put a fence around them. She began making patterns to rebuild the arched entrances. From 1980 to 1982, the museum board wanted $45 million for a new project. This included $3 million to rebuild the chapter house.
Meanwhile, Davis asked a museum worker for permission. He wanted to take several truckloads of stones to Vina. He planned to use them for decoration. Park workers helped him load the most decorative pieces he could find. They were taken away. Burke was not told about this. She found out that Davis had taken some chapter house stones. The museum board insisted these stones be returned. Davis was left with 58 stones from other monastery buildings.
In 1983 and 1987, Davis asked for all the chapter house stones. But he was not successful. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the de Young museum was to be rebuilt. The future of the stones was thought about again. In September 1993, museum director Harry Parker and Davis signed an agreement. The chapter house stones were given to New Clairvaux permanently. In 1994, the city approved the loan. They said the building must be rebuilt correctly. They also said it must be open to the public sometimes. The stones were moved in 20 truckloads to Vina. Inside an old brick barn, the stones began to be put back together. They were laid flat on Burke's patterns.
Building started in 2003. It was on the site of an orchard next to the main cloister building. Architect Patrick Cole was in charge of the rebuilding. He said that more than half of the needed stones for the chapter house were there. For the missing stones, over 90% were repeating patterns. So, new ones could be carved using the existing patterns. Stonemasons Oskar Kempf and Frank Helmholz used modern hydraulic lime as mortar. They did not make their own as was done long ago. Helmholz said this project was "something most stonemasons don't do in all their career."
The building is now twice as strong as it was in Spain. The stones support their own weight, as designed. But an outside frame of steel and concrete helps hold them together. This is important when the California ground shakes. The contractor, Phil Sunseri, said the building's foundation was also earthquake resistant. It has a 3-foot-thick (1 meter) concrete and steel base. This means "the entire building will move as one unit." The rebuilt chapter house is the largest example of original Cistercian Gothic architecture in the Western Hemisphere. It is also the oldest building in America west of the Rocky Mountains.
Nearby Sierra Nevada Brewing Company worked with the monks of New Clairvaux. They made a series of Belgian-style beers. They were sold under the Ovila Abbey brand. In late 2010, the beer company launched a website. It told the story of making the beer and restoring the stones. Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman said he had always wanted to make Belgian beers. The abbey's project was a good chance to do so. The first beer, a Dubbel, came out in March 2011. A Saison followed in July. A Quadrupel came out in November. Sierra Nevada has given a part of the beer sales to help pay for the rebuilding project.
See also
In Spanish: Monasterio de Santa María de Óvila para niños
