San Juan de la Peña

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The monastery of San Juan de la Peña is located at the south-west of Jaca, in Huesca, Spain. It was one of the most important monasteries in Aragon in the Middle Ages. Its two-level church is partially carved in the stone of the great cliff that overhangs the foundation. San Juan de la Peña means Saint John of the Rock.

The lower church includes some mozarabic architectural surviving elements, although most of the parts of the monastery (including the impressive cloister, under the great rock) are Romanesque. After the fire of 1675, a new monastery was built. The old monastery (built in 920) was declared National Monument in 13th july of 1889, and the new monastery in 1923. In the 11th century the monastery became part of the Benidictine Order and was the first monastery in Spain to use the Latin Mass.

The cloister, built ca. 1190, contains a series of capitals with Biblical scenes that originally were arranged in chronological sequence, a design found elsewhere in the region. ^[1]

The monastery is built beneath a huge rock sometimes associated with the legendary "Monte Pano".

Legend said that the chalice of the Last Supper (Holy Grail) was sent to the monastery for protection and prevention from being captured by the Muslim invaders of the Iberian Peninsula.

The monastery is the namesake of the Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña, which was partially researched and composed there.

[edit] References

1. ^ Pamela A. Patton, Pictorial Narrative in the Romanesque Cloister: Cloister Imagery and Religious Life in Medieval Spain (New York, Peter Lang, 2004)