Valldemossa Charterhouse

The Valldemossa Charterhouse (Catalan: Cartoixa de Valldemossa, Spanish: Cartuja de Valldemosa, translatable as Carthusian Monastery of Valldemossa) is a palace in Valldemossa, Majorca that was residence of the king Sancho of Majorca former royal residence and Royal Charterhouse (15th century).

The church tower (2010)

History

The origin of the complex dates back to the time of King James II of Majorca, who chose this exceptional place in the Sierra de Tramuntana, located more than 400 meters high, to build a palace for his son Sancho, known as the "Palace of the King Sancho". In the year 1399 Martin of Aragon yielded all the royal possessions of Valldemossa to the Carthusian monks.[1] These founded the Charterhouse and inhabited it until 1835, when it happened to private hands by the Ecclesiastical confiscations of Mendizábal.[1]

The church, a neoclassical building decorated by great artists and craftsmen of the time, began to be built in 1751 on the primitive church erected in 1446. The complex has a cloister -one of the oldest parts of the current buildings-, the old pharmacy of the Carthusians, garden and the rooms of the Prioral Cell-chapel, former library, audience room, bedroom ...- where the historical and artistic legacy of the Carthusians is preserved, showing how the monks lived. In the cells there are the documents and memories of the stay of the musician Frédéric Chopin and the writer George Sand the winter of the years 1838-1839. In the cell 4 Chopin composed his Preludes Op. 28, “ Scherzo no. 3, op. 39 in C-Sharp Minor” and Sand wrote A Winter in Majorca.[2]

Saint Catherine of Palma, one of the Patron Saints of Mallorca[3] was born at the Monastery in 1533.[2]

See also

References
  1. "Cartuja de Valldemossa - Monasterios". www.monestirs.cat. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  2. "Monuments in Majorca, Spain: Cartuja de Valldemosa. Cultural tourism in Balearic Islands, Spain". Spain.info. 23 April 2007. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  3. "Santa Catalina Thomas Statue, Valldemossa, Mallorca". Waymarking.com. Retrieved 14 December 2015.

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