San Millán de la Cogolla & San Millán de Yuso (18/03/14)

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.


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 6^th Century and San Millán de Yuso founded in the 11^th. 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 11^th 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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

Interior of church door

By the 10^th 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.

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.

Dome over crossing

The two monasteries had separate abbots until the 12^th 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.

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.

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.

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. 



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.

Gilded carvings in Sacristy

A 17^th 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.

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 21^st March and 21^st 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.

Monk's cells

The parish church section is dominated by the elaborate 18^th 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!

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.

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 13^th Century copy of the Codex Calixtinus – the most famous medieval account of pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago.

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 11^th 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 12^th 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.

Ivory panel

Also nearby at the back of the room and not to be missed, was a 16^th 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.

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!

Camino Day 8: Los Arcos - Logroño (16/03/15) Part I

The previous day we had walked 19km in 6 hours and 20 minutes. The next two days would involve longer walks of 28.6 km and 30.1 km respectively.

I had slept well, but had woken up in the early hours with the vivid thought as I lay in my bunk that just as the Camino occasionally intersects with “normal roads and then branches off them again, so God wants me to journey with him along his paths in my life and not follow the “normal” paths others expect me to follow. I am to follow the path he has called me to…

The Hermitage of San Blas

We left Los Arcos as the church bell tower was striking 8am and ascending a slight incline, reached the chapel of San Blas. It is noteworthy how many little hermitages such as this, that one passes on the Camino and it is interesting to think of the many hermits and anchorites that must have lived in such places dispensing their spiritual “wisdom” to medieval pilgrims in times past, making a pilgrimage to Santiago quite a much more religious journey than the more secular one people experience today. The chapels are mostly locked and silent now and devoid of life, but bear testimony to a very different sort of pilgrim past.


David stopped to re-arrange the water bladder in his rucksack and I walked on to have a little time alone. We had already agreed previously, that at times we would walk separately so that we could spend time praying, worshipping or just reflecting. David was also using his time alone to memorise Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The landscape opened up into wide fields and vineyards speckled with more wildflowers and almond blossom and although the wind was bracingly cold, I took the opportunity to sing some worship songs and pray for my mum who was having an operation on a torn ligament in her shoulder that morning and for a friend who was experiencing emotional and spiritual difficulties. Small birds piped from the bushes and the time passed pleasantly as I took a turn to the right past a little square stone structure which was perhaps another hermitage?

 Soon enough David had caught up with me as I stopped to examine more wildflowers and we approached the village of Sansol, named after a Christian martyr from Cordoba. Ahead of us as we walked up to the village was another of the Korean ladies and what amazed us about all the Korean women we saw was that they were walking the Camino in flip-flops which we felt could not be a good idea due to friction blisters and the lack of protection for the feet? Nonetheless, none of the Korean women seemed to be experiencing any particular foot problems!

Approaching Sansol

At Sansol we found a little café cum hardware store which seemed to sell everything from scallop shells to pliers, and we had coffee and plum cake. Richard the Anaesthetist and a young French guy called Louis arrived as we were leaving and walking up to the village church, where from the terrace in front of the church portal there was a fine view down into the valley of the next village of Torres del Rio.

David outside café at Sansol

Returning to the walk we passed two middle-aged pilgrims descending towards Torres holding hands and carrying matching rucksacks with their names printed on the back. We saluted them and commented on how very romantic the scene was!

View of Torres Del Rio from Sansol

I was excited to reach Torres del Rio because in the village is one of the most unusual churches on the entire Camino Francés – the 12^th century octagonal Romanesque church of the Holy Sepulchre. Similar to the one I saw at Eunate, this one to my mind is even more architecturally delightful because the central octagon is crowned by a lantern over the main cupola, with a cylindrical staircase on one side and a semi-circular apse on the other.

Looking back at Sansol Church from Torres Del Rio

The origins of Iglesia de Santo Sepulcro are obscure; it may have been linked with the Knights Templar, as octagonal churches based on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem are often linked with the Order and the exoticism of such churches is sometimes (probably wrongly) linked with the Templar’s demise. Other historians think that the church was built as a mortuary chapel for the burial of pilgrims; medieval burials have been excavated in front of the church where there was once a graveyard and the lantern may have acted as a beacon for bringing bodies from the surrounding landscape at night.

Iglesia Santo Sepulcro

A guardian sat at the door and stepping inside to have my credencial stamped was a wonderful experience. Above me was the wonderful lofty cross-ribbed vault which forms an eight sided star and is said to be emblematic of the Knights Templar. The extraordinarily complex design is Arabic in origin and owes much to similar vaults found in the architecture of the Islamic Caliphate of Medieval Cordoba. The names of some of the disciples were inscribed on the vault, a 13^th century crucifix hung in the apse and there was richly embellished carvings on the pillar capitals.

I spent a long time sitting in silence, tracing the ribs on the vault and listening to pigeons cooing. My reflections were abruptly brought back to the present when a friend of the guardian’s suddenly poked her head in the door and bellowed “BUENAS DIAZ!” at her friend and then looked sheepish when she saw me!

Returning outside I noted some inscriptions in the ancient stonework. David was sitting on a low wall and suggested we read the two Psalms of Ascents allotted for the day. How surprised I was and how appropriate it seemed then, given the architectural connection of Santo Sepulcro with Jerusalem to read:

“I rejoiced with those who said to me,

“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together”

In that moment it seemed like the compacted little village of Torres del Rio with it’s marvellous little temple stood symbolically in for Jerusalem and it’s ancient Temple and for a moment as Psalm 123 begins, we lifted up our eyes to Him.

Leaving Torres, David walked on ahead whilst I lingered to take a last look at Santo Sepulcro and then walking on I was delighted to find on a grassy embankment a stand of delicate Sombre or Dark Bee Orchids - Ophrys fusca. I kneeled carefully on the ground to photograph them and enjoy them close up. This was nature’s mimicry at it’s best. Orchids do not reward visiting insects to their flowers with nectar – it’s all take and no give with them! In this case the velvety deep red-brown flowers of the orchid stand out against the light green of the rest of the plant and resemble the rear end of a female bumble bee – right down to markings on the flower that look like wing tips and the female bee’s rear legs. The hapless male bumble flies in excitedly to copulate with what he thinks is a suitable female who has her head stuck in a flower, but all he gets for his trouble is a back full of pollen ready to fertilise another orchid as he tries again on the next flower!

Sombre Bee Orchid

I was lying on the ground when Richard appeared wondering what I was doing. I pointed out the orchids and he was surprised to hear that there were ground orchids in Europe. Richard was walking fairly slowly as his legs were giving him a lot of trouble and this was the last time we saw him as he apparently stopped for the night at Viana.

Hermitage of Nuestra Señora del Poyo

I caught up with David and we ascended the 570M hill of Nuestra Señora del Poyo. Poyo in Spanish means raised platform or podium and at it’s summit was another hermitage after which the hill is named. Beyond this the Camino descended steeply down a ravine picturesquely called Barranco Mataburros – the Mule-killer ravine!

Church of Santa Maria, Viana

Louis the young Frenchman who had been walking with Richard, caught up with us. He told us he was 18, from Clermont Ferrand in the Massif Central and had already walked 800 km with a 20kg pack to get this far! He hoped to walk home again too after reaching Finisterre! Although his English was not great we enjoyed talking to him and to him and he asked us about our professions and why we were walking the Camino and we explained that we were Christians. It is always interesting to hear the reasons why people walk the Camino and what was clear was that Louis had some deep family hurts in his life but was walking the Camino to face and work through them. David and I were impressed with his courage and willingness to confront his hurts. Eventually Louis stopped to have his lunch and we went on, wishing him well as we had not brought a picnic ourselves and needed to find lunch. We took the time to pray for him as we walked.

Recessed Doorway of Church

By the time we reached Viana, a lively town of about 3,600, we were ravenous and dived into a bar opposite the church portal for pintxos. As usual, the bar looked closed outside and was dead inside with only a meagre selection of pintxos, but no sooner had we ordered and started gulping and guzzling our food and vino tinto, when rent-a-crowd arrived again. The bar filled up, the selection of pintxos increased exponentially and we sampled more food and wine!

Thus fortified, we were able to take a quick look at Viana. In 1423 Charles III had founded the Principality of Viana and made it a property of the heir to the throne of Navarre. Surrounded by imposing town walls and old large townhouses the town was lively and impressive.

Portal of San Pedro

The church was closed but featured an elaborate recessed doorway and in front of it, under a slab on the ground, lies the grave of the infamous Cesare Borgia. He was the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI, the first person in history to resign as a cardinal, a mercenary soldier, he eventually fell foul of Alexander’s successor Pope Julius II who exiled him to Spain where he was killed in battle near Viana at Mendavia in 1507. An elaborate tomb was built for him inside the church but this was vandalised in the 17^th century and he was re-interred outside the church in front of the porch. Some say that he was the model used by Leonardo Da Vinci for the face of Christ which became the classic way Christ was portrayed in Renaissance paintings!

Surviving fresco in San Pedro

Further down the town we examined the ruins of the once impressive 14^th century church of San Pedro where surviving fragments of fresco and a ruined rose window hinted at it’s former splendour. Why it lies in ruins was unclear to us – was it war or neglect?

Ruined nave of San Pedro