2023-10-13 09:45:50
Any visitor who stops these days at the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes will be surprised to see how much of the town of Santa Creu de Rodes has emerged from under the rubble. They are concrete three “spectacular”, large houses, with ground floor and first floora complex architectural structure built later than those around the original nucleus, the church of Santa Helena, which date from the second half of the 12th and 13th centuries with constructive evolution in the 14th. The new houses, a kind of late-medieval slum possibly the result of urban growth outside the closed enclosure, were discovered during the last archaeological campaign, carried out this September and promoted by the Catalan Agency for Cultural Heritageworks that continue the line of discovery of the site these last five years with the aim of “consolidating and ordering the monument to make it accessible and visitable”.
The campaign has focused on the southern part, which overlooks the monastery, right in the access area to the site. Last year, the first of these houses appeared “with characteristics quite different from those within the strict enclosure of the town square, which are more irregular”, he points out the archaeologist Anna Maria Puigdirector of the campaign who explains that the current three “are very well aligned, side by side, with two perfectly ordered levels, and particular common elements that define them and make them quite unique, giving them a aesthetic quality”.
The common elements are, for example, cupboards of niches, “constructively very interesting”, of which they do not know if they were used to store things and which had not been seen in the first houses. Nevertheless, and pending further investigation, Puig is of the opinion that they could certainly have housed some establishment other than the one around the square.
Premeditated urban planning
The historian Sònia Masmartí details that the three houses, which were built one after the other, must have been built at the same time and sharing a master builder. They also show “a premeditated planning approach”, adds Puig who acknowledges that it is necessary to finish defining what type of occupation existed in this sector, but points out how the three houses are adapted to the unevenness of the natural terrain with a step from one level to another unpublished at the site. As a particularity, they have internal stairs to access the adjacent gardens. In addition, one of them “had been completely covered with a stone vault with which they replaced the interior beam ceiling”.
In this process to better understand this occupation, the information treasured by the Capbreu of the cellar of the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes (1420), discovered more than a decade ago by Arnald Plujà and known to Sònia Masmartí in detail She explains that that year, two of the homes discovered were owned by Margarida Matalí. Before that, however, there had been other owners. The third house belonged to one of the clergy of the church. Masmartí specifies that it must be borne in mind that “they could be owners, but not live there”. Nor is it clear, yet, what activity the low-rises had with access to the entrance street to the village.
A unique place
Both Anna Maria Puig and Sònia Masmartí share the excitement of everything that is happening in Sant Pere de Rodes, of how “the monastery is getting closer and closer to Santa Helena and now everything is much better understood”. The historian says that they had expected two houses to surface in this campaign, but “not so large and varied, so well ordered” that they have no resemblance to the rest of the town. Puig explains that in this southern area the work is almost finished and that what remains to be done in the future is the entire northern side, outside the portal, where buildings can also be observed. Also look for the original access road to the monastery or the water supply system “to give value to the perimeter”. Masmartí acknowledges that all the campaigns have helped to define the town very well and “to consolidate this vision of the monumental ensemble, the evidence that this mountain is a unique place where these three elements of feudal society have been preserved –monastery, castle and village-, which are visitable and understandable for everyone». Puig remarks that “there are no sites with these volumes, with these wall heights, some over two meters”. In addition, everything is used because the large amount of debris generated is all preserved and part of it is reused in the restoration and consolidation of the walls of the site while the rest is used by the natural park of Cap de Creus to redo farmhouses or dry stone walls. The aim of the Catalan Cultural Heritage Agency is to launch, next year, a project to adapt the visit, integrating it into the monumental ensemble. The last step will be the museumization of this “so grateful” site, as described by the two experts.
They find the medieval cemetery of the town of Santa Creu de Rodes
#spectacular #houses #surface #town #Santa #Creu #Rodes