Camino Photo of the Day: Saint Benedict’s
Day three of Sahagún Week! Sahagún is a city of ruins. Here I stand posing with a statue of a traditional pilgrim’s staff in front of what was once el Monasterio Real de San Benito. In 1820, the Spanish government dissolved the monasteries. The monks were turned out into the street. Moveable goods were plundered. Land and buildings were seized and auctioned off, block by block. Ruins of the various parts of the old Royal Monastery of Saint Benedict continue to rise like ghosts throughout the central portions of modern Sahagún.
The medieval town of Sahagún grew up around its monastery. It was founded about the year 900 and over the next centuries grew into a major cultural center, reaching its zenith of prestige under Abbot Bernardo de Sédirac (who we have already met) in the twelfth century. It declined in the fifteenth century and became part of the Congregation of the Monasterio de San Benito el Real de Valladolid (as did many other Spanish Benedictine monasteries) in 1494.
And in 1820, the Spanish government utterly destroyed it.
Date: 17 April 2013
Place: Sahagún (Province of León, Castilla y León, Spain)
Today started: Terradillos de los Templarios (Province of Palencia, Castilla y León, Spain)
