The
village of San Millán de
la Cogolla sits at the end of a beautiful valley whose steep sides are thickly
wooded. Large sandstone bluffs protrude in places from the trees and add
dramatic beauty to the scenery. Even though it was raining when we arrived and
continued to lightly drizzle during our stay, this only seemed to add to the
beauty as wisps of mist clung to the trees on the higher slopes and I was
reminded of the damp tranquility of Glendalough; David and I agreed that the
scenery made us feel like we were in Co. Wicklow as the valley and weather had
a very Irish feel.
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| San Millán |
The suffix of the place name de la Cogolla means “of the cowl” and
refers to the monastic cowl or hood and is variously thought to be a reference
to the shape of the valley or the monastic history of the area. This is because
San
Millán is primarily famous not for it’s scenery, but for it’s two monasteries; San Millán de Suso founded
in the 6th Century and San Millán de Yuso founded
in the 11th. Suso and Yuso mean “upper”
and “lower” (from the Latin “sursum” – “above” and “deorsum” - below) in archaic
Castillian because San Millán de Suso developed high up the side
of the valley in the forest and then later, because there was little room to
expand the monastery buildings, San Millán de Yuso was built on the
valley floor.
In 1997 both monasteries were
declared a UNESCO World Heritage site for two main reasons. Firstly because San
Millán de la Cogolla is considered, as UNESCO acknowledges “the birthplace of
the modern written and spoken Spanish language” – the third most widely spoken
language on the globe. Sometime in the 11th Century, an anonymous
monk in the scriptorium at Suso wrote
a codex manuscript now called the Glosa Emilianenses. The
main text was written in a simplified form of Latin, but importantly, he wrote
notes or marginalia
around the edges in
Medieval Basque and a medieval form of a Hispanic language which scholars
debate was either Castillian
or Old Spanish
or alternatively Navarro- Aragonese. The main point is that these
notes are the earliest written example of the Basque language and one of the
earliest examples of early Spanish (the Real Academia
Española declared in 2010 that written Spanish found in another medieval
document , Cartularies
of Valpuesta from the Province of Burgos is actually earlier that the Glosa
Emilianenses).
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| Copy of the Glosa Emilianenses |
The second reason for the
UNESCO declaration is that the two monasteries are important because they show
the transition from the earlier Eremitic monastic
tradition, where a hermit might live in a cave and maybe slowly gather a group
of followers around themselves, to the Cenobitic or
Community tradition, which became the dominant form of monasticism, where monks
live together under a monastic rule.
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| San Millan de Yuso |
The monastic history of the
area begins during the Visigothic period with Saint Aemilian (Emilianus in
Latin and San Millán in Spanish). According to a Vita or saintly biography written by Braulius, Bishop of Caesaraugusta (modern Zaragoza) written between
50 – 100 years after the saint’s death, and based on the testimony of four of
his disciples, San Millán was born in Berceo in A.D.473 and according to
tradition, lived over one hundred years, dying in 574.
He spent his early years as a
shepherd in the mountains, but about the age of twenty he had a dream and
decided to dedicate his life to serving God. He decided to seek advice and
training from a hermit at Bilibio, San
Felices or Felix and lived with
him for a number of years before becoming a travelling hermit (or gyrovagus) living in the mountains and
remote regions along the ancient Roman road that developed into the Camino de
Santiago between Logroño and Burgos. Tradition says that he spent much of this
period, about 40 years, living in the hills around La Cogolla.
Eventually, against San
Millán’s personal wishes, Didymus,
Bishop of Tarazona ordained him as a priest, however he soon drew upon himself
the opposition and anger of his fellow priests because he gave away his
possessions in alms and was accused of wasting the goods of the church and
deprived of his office.
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| Yuso Cloister |
After this, San Millán
returned to the wilderness and became famous for his holiness, miracle working
and compassion for the poor. In his last years, although his ascetic lifestyle
increased, he allowed a small band of disciples to live with him in his cell.
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| Entrance to abbey church from cloister |
Braulius records miracles that
were supposed to have occurred after San Millán’s death and some of San
Millán’s liturgical prayers were written down by a medieval poet San Eugenio in A.D. 634 who also
dedicated some Latin distichs (elegiac verses) to him. The monastery of San Millán de Suso was built over the site of his hermit’s caves and
tomb and became increasingly popular as the Camino de Santiago developed.
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| Interior of church door |
By
the 10th Century the rival kingdoms of Castille and Navarre were
both interested in bringing the monastery within their sphere of influence
because it was already setting up monastic colonies, copying out codexes and
providing both royal courts with scribes. Both kingdoms vied with each other to
grant the monastery privileges. In 1030 Sancho
the Great as part of his efforts to develop the Camino de Santiago, ordered
San Millán’s relics to be exhumed and displayed to encourage prayer. At the
same time San Millán was declared a saint and was in time came to be considered
the patron saint of Castille and Navarre.
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| High Altar with painting of San Millan |
Sancho’s son Don Garcia of Najéra began the
construction of a second monastery, San
Millán de Yuso. Like the evocative story of Don Garcia entering the cave at
Najéra, there is another legend associated with the same king and the founding
of Yuso. It is a story reminiscent of
the biblical account of the return of the Ark of the Covenant to the Israelites
from the Philistines in the book of 1 Samuel chapter 6. According to tradition
Don Garcia decided to transfer San Millán’s relics to the monastery of Santa Maria la Real in Najéra from Suso. The remains were placed inside
some wooden caskets decorated with ivory panels and precious stones and placed
on an ox cart. However, when the oxen reached the bottom of the valley they
refused to continue and everyone then understood that the saint did not want to
leave the valley and so San Millán de
Yuso was built on the spot where the oxen stopped and the saint’s relics
are still kept at Yuso today.
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| Dome over crossing |
The two monasteries had
separate abbots until the 12th Century and became Benedictine
foundations. Work on Yuso was
finished in 1067 during the reign of Sancho
IV el de Peñalen and around the same time a marble reliquary for San
Millán’s remains was completed.
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| Baroque altarpiece in Parish Church |
The Benedictines claimed San
Millán as their own and representations of the saint show him in a Benedictine
monk’s cowl, although San Millán himself was never a member of a monastic order
or organised community. He is also often shown in a similar way to images of Santiago Matamoros – Moor slayer, with a
wavy sword to distinguish him from St James, as he was supposed to have miraculously
appeared at the battle of Hacinas in favour of the Christian forces.
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| Imprisoned saint in Parish Church side chapel |
Later figures linked with the
monasteries include Santo Domingo de
Silos (or Cañas), Santo Domingo de la
Calzada (who we shall come across in future posts) who was considered so
intellectually dull that he got thrown out of Yuso, and a poet famous in Spanish literature, Gonzalo de Berceo.
Once David and I had rested,
we walked the short distance from the guest house over to San Millán de Yuso. It was still raining and it was now late
afternoon, so we agreed that we would visit Yuso
and then examine the smaller monastery of San Millán de Suso the following morning before we walked to Cirueña to rejoin the main Camino route.
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| Sacristy |
Yuso could
only be viewed via a guided tour which took approximately one hour. Although
the tour guide only spoke in Spanish, there were excellent information boards
in French, English and German throughout the tour.
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| Sacristy Fresco |
The monastery complex of San Millán de Yuso is an enormous edifice with stupendously opulent Baroque interiors and additions and we greatly
enjoyed our tour. We were led firstly into a hall by the cloister to view a
facsimile of the Glosa Emilianenses and
then through the cloister and an elaborate doorway (the interior of which was a
stunning confection of gilded Rococo motifs) to the abbey church.
The church itself was built
between 1504 and 1540 and is the first example of a Hall Church or so called Hallen-Kirchen
(a church with a nave and side aisles of approximately equal heights) in
Spain. The front part of the church is used as the monastery church and the
rear as the local parish church.
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| Gilded carvings in Sacristy |
A 17th Century
renaissance altarpiece has paintings by Fray Juan Ricci, a Benedictine monk who
belonged to the school of El Greco and the central panels show San Millán
appearing at the battle of Hacinas with the Assumption of the Virgin above. A
small dome above the crossing is tastefully plastered with stucco in a
surprisingly muted manner and reminded me of the tiny domed church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane that I
saw last year in Rome.
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| Cloister |
At the rear of the monastery
church an incredibly elaborate screen made by Sebastian de Medina in 1676, divides
the choir off from the parish church area. A very interesting feature of the
screen is a large circle above the door through to the Parish Church, where on
the Spring and Autumn equinoxes on the 21st March and 21st
September at 17:30 the sun shines through the church window and forms a perfect
ellipse on the choir floor through this circular screen opening, thus
demonstrating the west – east axis of the church.
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| Monk's cells |
The parish church section is
dominated by the elaborate 18th Century baroque altarpiece made from
walnut wood covered in gold leaf which forms the far side of the dividing
screen and is decorated with carvings of saints associated with the life of San
Millán. There are several side chapels where masses were said for the locals;
some of them have interesting altarpieces featuring carvings of
imprisoned saints behind bars!
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| Gregorian Chant Books |
We moved on to the extraordinary
sacristy which made us gasp due to the richness of it’s gilded walnut carvings
and vibrant coloured frescoes which date from 1766 when the abbot Fray José
Fernándes converted the Chapter House. The richness of the original colours has
survived because the floor is made from alabaster which maintains a constant
temperature and humidity. The frescoes are an exuberant riot of dancing musical cherubs
framed by swags of fruit and flowers.
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| Codex Calixtinus |
On the second floor of the
cloister we passed the monk’s cells and then viewed the storeroom where a
collection of 25 original books of Gregorian Chant are kept in locked wooden
store cupboards. Copied between 1729 and 1731 on calfskin parchment, each book
was impressively large. There are only four such surviving complete collections
of Gregorian Chant in Spain including this one at Yuso; two in Madrid, at the Palacio
Real and El Escorial and the fourth at the Monastery of Guadalupe (Cáceres).
Nearby in the same room was an illuminated 13th Century copy of the Codex Calixtinus – the most famous
medieval account of pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago.
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| Reliquary of San Millan |
Before leaving the monastery
we finally were taken to see the chapel were the silver reliquaries containing
the remains of San Millán and San Felices de Bilibio are kept. Both were
created in 1944 under the orders of General Francisco Franco; “Prudentissimo Duci Maximo” as the
inscription on San Millán’s reliquary describes him. San Millán’s reliquary is
decorated with delightful 11th Century ivory plates showing scenes
from San Millán’s life and miracles and the panels are one of the most
important surviving pieces of Romanesque art. San Felice’s box is also decorated
with ivory panels, but this time from the 12th Century. I spent a
long time enjoying the panels with their intricate carvings of religious scenes and their evocation of medieval chapels, castles, knights, horses and costumes
with the hand of God blessing all from above.
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| Ivory panel |
Also nearby at the back of the
room and not to be missed, was a 16th Century Italian gilt bronze
crucifix attributed to Benvenuto Cellini.
We left the monastery feeling very pleased that we had achieved so much in one day; not only had we managed to walk from
Najéra to San Millán de la Cogolla, but we had been able to view two important monasteries
– Cañas and Yuso and had the satisfaction of knowing that we still had Suso to
see the following morning.
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| 16th Century Italian crucifix |
We enjoyed a well-deserved
meal at the restaurant opposite Yuso which included a segundo fish course washed down with half a
bottle of rioja each, then retired to our guesthouse to rest. David snored the
rest of the evening away whilst I wrote up my journal and read!
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