Ceret - Priory Santa Maria del Vilar

The morning was taken up with a return to Chatuea D'Aubiry caveau (not open til 3 today so we went back later and bought 2, 5litre boxes of our house wine) and a restock at the Intermarche.

At the market we buy a poulet roti. We have a meal of it on Saturday night, cut off enough meat
for a second meal and freeze the carcass. This is the second time I have used the carcass
to make sopa de lima, a chicken and lime soup that we loved in Mexico. Adds a little variety to the
olives, pate, cheese, apple and baguette that is our regular lunch.

Mum and Dad stayed in Banyuls sur Mer 16 years ago and remember going to see a church with very old frescos. We went in search of it today. Following the guide book we drove towards Angeles sur Mer and then turned off the highway and through Villelongue-dels-Monts then following the signs to Priure Santa Maria de Vilar up a steep, narrow and windy road. The road ended at the Priory and we walked up.

Up a path and through that arch.

We were greeted by this door and no-one around, note the key in the lock. After a
couple of minutes a nun opened the door and sold us our tickets. She spoke perfect
English, charged us 4 Euro each and told us to wait in front of the church for our
guide.

We waited where we were told and, shortly, were greeted by a young nun, glasses,
full wool habit and black sweatshirt who spoke very good English. 

Let me tell you the story of the place first. A community of monks established the priory in 1083, near a pass through the mountains of Alberes (the part of the Pyrenees that gradually decreases in height until meeting the Mediterranean). They founded it on the ruins of a Roman church and fortified area. They built a new church and cloister and lived there until 1535 when they left due to persecution of the church. It sat vacant. In 1803 it was sold to a farmer who housed his animals in the church and the upstairs of the refectory. The location was abandoned in 1942 and overrun with vegetation.
In 1993 Mrs Lucette Triadou bought a house in the village below, saw the ruins, bought the property and decided to restore it. She did this entirely with volunteers under the supervision of professionals and experts. Once completed it was declared a historic monument and Mrs Triadou sought a religious order to reside there. She donated the site to a Romanian Orthodox Monastic Community who have lived there since 2005 and provide guided tours every day of the year. 6 members of the order live and pray there.
Our guide was lovely, she spoke admiringly of the woman who had the vision and the will to restore this place, she spoke eloquently of the decades of prayer that make this a spiritual place, when asked she described her order and their beliefs but basically her tour was about the history and architecture. She asked to have no photographs taken of her or of the inside of the church.

Only the pillars are new marble the rest was found around the site or tracked down
as it had been sold. The door itself had been sold to a collector near Paris and was bought back
as were the tops of the columns. The holes were put in the door by the farmer, to ventilate
his "barn".

Our guide spoke of the variety of styles and the beliefs they represented. The column top
has a fierce grimacing face (Catalonian, designed to scare evil spirits from the door) and
faces of Christ. On the other side were Egyptian symbols and inside Moorish designs.

This is the courtyard between the church, the refectory and residence. The site is on a steep hill, next to a stream.
Over the years it became covered in sediment, soil, manure and vegetation. This actually protected it and much
of the original walls was unearthed during the restoration. Only the roof had to be replaced on the refectory, the rest
was intact though underground.

Behind the refectory, Roman ruins of a "temple" or "nymphaem", water from the stream was directed through 3 holes, down 3 channels and out 3 arches. A statue of the nymph would have been here also but was never found.

High on the side of the church, a painted red cross. This was the symbol of hospitality and could be seen from
the pass, letting pilgrims know they could seek shelter there.

Inside the church it was stark and cold. I was just admiring the lack of electricity when our guide reached into a hole in the wall, drew out a remote control and turned dim lights on around the altar, made me laugh. She said they used them so guests could see the fresos when the sun through the few small windows was insufficient. They pray by candle light only.
The frescos were primitive but she described their meaning and relevance. She also talked about how the monks had covered the whole church with a layer of plaster to protect the frescos before they left but the acid from the animal waste was what had destroyed most of them. There were peacocks, buffalo, waves, angels, the virgin Mary, lions, curtains all painted on the ceiling and wall over and around the altar. The entire church would have been painted and we could see some faint remnants on other parts of the walls.

In the refectory there were some pictures of how the site looked before the restoration and some of the
the things they used. For instance they had no idea how the church entrance was supposed to look until
a chance finding of a postcard of it in an antique store in Barcelona.

In the small cloister area there were glass cases with significant archeological items found during the restoration; coins, pottery, glass, metal items. There were pictures of a lightning rod. Long before Benjamin Franklin this stone full of iron ore was shaped into a point and placed on top of the church. Other stones, heavy in iron, were included in the wall, providing a route for lightning strikes to be directed down into the ground.
What a lovely spot, fascinating stories and one of the best guided tours I have ever had, all for 4 Euros. Mum and I plan to go back to do some sketching when it warms up a bit.
On the "foodie" front; tonight we managed to replicate the pureed carrot that we had out for lunch in Collioure. We cooked the carrot, pureed it with butter, honey, curry and cream and served it in ramekins. Not often you manage to copy something successfully on the first attempt.

By the way. It turns out this was not the church Mum and Dad saw 16 years ago. We still have to find that one. Oh good, more exploring on narrow mountain roads!