Monastery of Sant Bartomeu (Bellpuig)

The monastery of Sant Bartomeu de Bellpuig is the product of a world in transformation: a witness to the transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance and the emergence of a new way of thinking that seeks the transcendence of the individual, his glory and honour, beyond death.

The monastery was commissioned in 1507 by Ramon Folc de Cardona i Anglesola, lord of Bellpuig, who was also viceroy of Naples and Sicily. The aim was to build a setting for his mausoleum, influenced by the customs of the Neapolitan nobility for whom a mausoleum of marble with its own chapel was one more sign of power and magnificence. At the same time the donation to the Franciscans guaranteed the intercession of the community for the salvation of his soul.

The architecture of the monastery shows the contrast between Franciscan austerity and the splendour with which the Cardona Anglesola family wished to endow it, to be seen most of all in the decoration of the cistern cloister.

As the execution of the project too a considerable time, the Gothic structure of the complex gave way to Reinassance elements such as the cladding of the east façade, the second floor of the cloister or the Duke's viewpoint. The chapterhouse, the chalice cupboard, in the Florid Gothic style, and the Plateresque wash basin of the refectory are good examples of the stylistic superimposition of the complex.

The most monumental piece was the founder's own mausoleum, in the monastery church. This is a fully Renaissance work that exalts the virtues and records his military victories for the purpose of perpetuating his memory.

After the attacks during the Peninsular War and the abandonment that followed confiscation in 1835 there was a fear that this heritage would not survive, and the mausoleum was moved to the parish church, where it can be visited today, whilst the monastery was subjected to the refurbishements required by the various uses to which the building has been put since that time.