Resumen de Elementos fortificados en los monasterios jerónimos de la Corona deAragón
Marina Sender Contell, Ricardo Perelló Roso, Manuel Giménez Ribera
The monasteries of the Order of Saint Jerome (OSH) in Spain received large donations that allowed them to build important buildings to house their communities. The Order was founded in the 14th century and has always maintained direct links with the Spanish monarchy and aristocracy. Unlike the Cistercian or Carthusian monasteries, these do not have a fixed building model. The main rooms (church, sacristy, refectory, library, etc.) are common to all of them and similar to those of any other order, but the organization varies from one house to another depending on the implantation on the territory. Although the appearance of the Order was practically simultaneous in the crowns of Castilla and Aragon, the monasteries of the latter, located on the Mediterranean slope of the Iberian Peninsula, present some differential characteristics. Typologically they are configured as compact buildings, developed around a single cloister, and in which defensive elements appear. In particular, and as a distinctive element in all the houses of the founding phase, a powerful fortified tower appears. Thus, the monasteries of Santa María de la Murta in Alzira, San Jeroni de Cotalba, and Sant Jeroni de la Murtra in Badalona present this common characteristic. The tower, designed as a defensive element, has the function of providing shelter to the community of monks and their property against possible attacks. The history of the first community of the Order that, in its first years of existence, suffered looting, plundering and the kidnapping of its monks by barbary pirates, was undoubtedly a recurring memory that prompted the construction of these elements. In this paper, the similarities and typological, constructive and structural differences of these monasteries are given, with special attention to the fortified tower piece.
