Claustra

Authorship

Karen Stöber

Name

Santa Maria de les Franqueses

Chronological data

c.1186

Orderse

Cistercenques
De 1175 a 1475

Related Communities

History of the Community

Founded by the counts of Urgell, who especially favoured the Cistercian order, Santa Maria de Les Franqueses was a house of white nuns established at the behest of Dolça, widow of Ermengol VII of Urgell, around 1186. The foundress had previously received the site from her son, Ermengol VIII, with the intention of establishing there a Cistercian monastery dedicated to the Virgin. The count bequeathed to the new foundation an annual monetary allowance, 1000 sous, for ten years. Initially, the nunnery enjoyed a period of stability, even prosperity. It was ruled by a string of seemingly competent enough abbesses, and it was remembered in the wills of the nobility and royalty, gradually increasing its lands and properties as well as the number of nuns resident in the house, which rose to as many as some 50 nuns in the thirteenth century. The noble testators include Guerau de Cabrera (1204); Ermengol VIII (1208); the king Pere el Catòlic (1211); Elvira de Subirats, widow of Ermengol VIII (1236); Álvar d’Urgell (1267); Ermengol X (1314); Cecilia, widow of Jaume I d’Urgell (1350); Ferran d’Antequera.

Despite the bequests of these and other benefactors, Santa Maria de Les Franqueses was by the fourteenth century sinking into decline, and by the mid-fourteenth century the community closed its doors. Pope Sixtus’s bull of 1470 confirmed the closure of the house.

Prominent figures

The successive counts of Urgell were the principal benefactors of Santa Maria de Les Franqueses, but other prominent members of the Catalan nobility, too, showed their generosity to the nuns; they include two kings, Pere el Catòlic and Jaume I.

Dolça, widow of Ermengol VII of Urgell

Guerau de Cabrera

Ermengol VIII of Urgell

Elvira de Subirats, widow of Ermengol VIII

Álvar d'Urgell

Ermengol X of Urgell

Ferran d'Antequera

Pope Sixtus IV

The names of several abbesses of Les Franqueses survive. They include Gila (1187-89), Ricarda (1190-1200), Comdora (1200-1202), Guillelma (1203-1206), Raimunda (prioress, not abbess, from 1206 to 1208), Berenguera de Rocafort (1208-19), Maria (occurs 1224), Sibil·la d'Urtx (occurs 1282), Eleanor (occurs 1302), Isabel de Zaya (occurs 1452), and Elvira de Sant Martí (occurs 1474).

Bibliography and links

Bibliography

Piquer i Jover, J.J., 1966. "Monestirs cistercencs femenins de la Corona d' Aragó al segle XIX", Studia monastica, V(8): 71-132.

Bertran i Roigé, P., 1982. El Monestir de Santa Maria de les Franqueses: notes per a la seva història, Lleida: Institut dʼEstudis Ilerdencs. 

Bertran i Roigé, P., 1982. El Monestir de Santa Maria de les Franqueses: notes per a la seva història, Lleida: Institut dʼEstudis Ilerdencs. 

Piquer i Jover, J.J., 1966. "Monestirs cistercencs femenins de la Corona d' Aragó al segle XIX", Studia monastica, V(8): 71-132.

Key words

Dolça d'Urgell; Ermengol VIII; Guerau de Cabrera; Pere el Catòlic; Elvira de Subirats; Àlvar d’Urgell; Ermengol X; Cecília d’Urgell; Ferran d’Antequera; Sixt IV

Geographic descriptor

Catalunya

Notes