Monastery Hotel!

Hi everyone! This is Allison! A couple of nights ago we stayed in a monastery that was bought and converted into a hotel with an attached museum and church on the side. The atmosphere of this was amazing! When we first walked in, chant music was playing on the speakers and to the left was a dining area that was once a worship space. As we moved up to our rooms it was easy to see that the buyer had taken great care in making sure the monastery remained looking like a monastery! The doors were very square and wooden, along with many religious paintings lining the walls of the hallways and rooms. Outside the window was an amazing view of the cloister, with a fountain in the center and grassy patches on four side. Overall it was a beautiful place to live and kept the “look” of the original monastery!

The next day we travelled around the attached museum and church. We found a beautiful worship space with gilded wooden carved alter pieces. We walked into the back of the worship area to find a set of graves above ground of a family who wished to be buried close to the church. Some of us talked for a bit about how death was more of a reality for those in medieval times, and the acceptance of that was critical in the lives of these people. This was the first time we found graves with humans inside them above ground (we had seen below ground or in walls) and I found it amazing to speak with my cohorts about death in medieval times and its relation to the church. We found a diagram that allowed us to see the graves were originally outside the church for the congregation to walk through. Due to this, we discussed how the church emphasized death being a part of life and how important it was to follow the way of God to get into heaven when they die. Overall, even with this morbid topic, I learned a lot and was able to foster great conversations with my peers!

Oh and we also found a cut out of Saint James to pose in like we were traveling the Camino as him (look at Dr. Survilla’s Facebook for pictures!)