Sant Pere
Church · Girona
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Two carved stone lions flank the large window crowning the west portal, which is framed in turn with geometric and plant motifs. The rebuilding of 1160 wrapped the outside of the apse in blind arcades and a sawtooth frieze, above rows of capitals cut mostly with acanthus leaves; fire in 1936 damaged some of them.
A hospital next door, Sant Julià, sheltered travelers passing through Besalú on pilgrimage; the monks who ran it were bound by the Rule of Saint Benedict to care for the poor and those on the road. Papal recognition came fast: Pope Benedict VII issued a bull confirming the abbey just two years after its founding, and Count Bernat Tallaferro took part in its consecration in 1003. The 12th-century rebuilding added blind arcades and a sawtooth frieze around the outside of the apse and rows of capitals mostly carved with acanthus leaves. The abbey lost its independence in 1070, folded into the reform-minded abbey of Saint-Victor de Marseille, before regaining autonomy in 1086; when the county of Besalú was absorbed into Barcelona in 1111 the abbey's fortunes rose with it. It was dissolved in the disentailment of 1835, and fire during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 damaged some of the carved capitals.
What you see
A large window flanked by two carved stone lions crowns the west portal, itself framed with carvings of geometric and plant motifs.
romanesquepilgrimagemonasterymedieval history