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Monastery of Sant Joan les Fonts

Sant Joan les Fonts, Garrotxa, Girona

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 2 Historical milestones

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Monastery of Sant Joan les Fonts

Monument · Sant Joan les Fonts, Garrotxa, Girona

Monastery located beside a bend of the Fluvià river, in the town of Sant Joan les Fonts (la Garrotxa), documented since 958 and consecrated in 1117. The viscounts of Besalú Udalard Bernat and his wife Ermessenda ceded it in 1079 to the monastery of Sant Víctor de Marseille, which founded a Benedictine priory there; in 1424 it passed under the dependence of Sant Pere de Besalú, and in 1592 it joined Sant Pere de Camprodon, on which it depended until Mendizábal's disentailment. It was declared a national monument in 1981, and in 2013 the presbytery was stabilised and the original medieval pavement was excavated. It is a building with three naves without a transept and three apses, one of them demolished in the 18th century to build the sacristy; noteworthy are the pointed barrel vault of the central nave, with Corinthian capitals, and a large hemispherical baptismal font decorated with scenes such as the death of Saint John the Baptist.

Photo: ca:user:amadalvarez (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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