There exist a number of medieval churches and castles built on spectacular sites: Saint-Martin-du-Canigou is one of the most remarkable. A challenging site will often induce an imaginative response from builders: this monastery is admirably designed and perfectly suited to its lonely, lofty mountain perch.
St Martin was built on a picturesque spur of a huge Pyrenean mountain mass, surrounded by plunging gorges, in French Catalonia. From the mountain village of Casteil a steep winding path climbs 300 meters to 1094 meters above sea level – there is a defibrillator in a box at the top!
The monastery was founded just after 1000 AD by the local Count of Cerdagne and the monk Selva, who headed a small monastic community from Ripoll on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees. It was built by 1020 at the beginning of an intense period of construction which would, in the well known phrase of Raoul Glaber, clothe Europe in a “white robe of churches” in gratitude for deliverance from millennial terror.
Entry to the monastery is through a splendid tower topped with Moorish battlements which arises beautifully out of solid rock and dominates the small cluster of buildings.
The church itself is on two levels, a means of making best use of the small area. Two crypts were moulded to the rock formation; their rough barrel vaults give the impression that they have been hewn out of the rock. The church proper covers them: this is a dark, austere space, simple and undecorated, but it is awe-inspiring that it was able to be built on this site at all.
It is also remarkable that space was made for a small, irregular-shaped cloister. The other monastic buildings have been arranged around this cloister in the course of a substantial but sensitive restoration between 1902 and 1932. From the cloister gallery there are spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and ravines. From all viewpoints this is an inspiring and original setting for any building.
St Martin is still occupied by a small community of monks and nuns of the Order of the Beatitudes.
