Sant Cugat Monastery and Wine Cellar near Parc Colserolla
Walled monastery & church museum. The wine co-operative was founded in 1921 by 50 local wine makers as a place to process the grapes
Updated: Feb 21, 2023by: Barcelona Travel HacksViews: 1.6k
About Sant Cugat Monastery and Wine Cellar
Sant Cugat monastery
Dates from the ninth century. in the year 985 it was damaged by an attack of Muslim troops led by al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir who repaired the monastery and added the minaret which remains today.
In the mid-12th century, the construction of a new monastery began. It was finished in 1337. In 1350, work began on the fortifications. During the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714), it was occupied by troops of Archduke Charles, causing damage to the structure. Restoration work was completed in 1789. In 1835, the monastery was abandoned by the monks, remaining empty until 1851, when restoration began. It was declared a National Monument in 1931.
Distinctive features of the monastery are is two floor cloister, Church and walled compound. The 30 metre cloister was designed by Arnau Cadell and his disciple Lluis Samaranch and follows the square plan typical of many monasteries in Catalunya from this period.
The cloister is Romanesque but the church is built in the Gothic style, having a nave and two aisles. The façade has a large (8.2 metre diameter) rose window, similar to those in the Cathedrals of Barcelona and of Tarragona. The church houses a Gothic altarpiece, known as the retablo de Todos los Santos, made in 1375 by Pere Serra.
Sant Cugat Wine Cooperative
In 1921, fifty-one local viticulturists, some of them owners, but mostly tenants, founded the Sindicat Vitivinacola and Caixa Rural de Sant Medir, a cooperative whose main objective was to make wine together to get more out of the production of grapes. It was commissioned from Cesar Martinell, the architect specialising in agrarian modernist architecture of the time.
After the peek of 1950 when maximum production was reached activity began to gradually decline. The crisis in the sector had a very important impact, but above all the fact that the rural Sant Cugat that until then lived from the work of the field was already beginning to be transformed into a city.
