The Monastery of Saint-André d'Eixalada (Catalan: Sant Andreu d'Eixalada) was a Benedictine Christian monastery active in the 9th century in the eastern Pyrenees (now the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales). Founded on the banks of the River Têt no later than 840–841, the site suffered flood devastation in 878.
Founded by members of the same family, the Saint-André d'Eixalada monastery initially experienced a period of stagnation and poverty, until the arrival of new, much wealthier monks in 854. The wealthiest of them, Protasius, was also a dynamic man. Under his impetus, the monastery increased its possessions and influence, notably obtaining a diploma from Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, in 871, making it a royal abbey.
By 878, the abbey was at its peak. Both protégé and ally of the Count of Conflent, Miro the Elder, played a part in his conquest of the County of Roussillon. At the end of the same year, the Saint-André d'Eixalada monastery was destroyed by a flood. Such was the damage that the surviving monks decided to abandon the site and found a new abbey downstream, at Cuxa, on land belonging to Protasius.
Location
The Têt is a river that rises in the Pyrenees at the foot of the Carlit summit, before joining a vast high plateau (the Cerdanya, whose historic capital is Llívia) at Bolquère. As it flows around the citadel of Mont-Louis, it enters a graben that forms a deep valley with numerous canyons. From Prades onwards, the river widens, then crosses the Roussillon plain before flowing into the Mediterranean shortly after Perpignan. The Têt valley, between Cerdanya and Roussillon, is called the Conflent. Haut Conflent is the steep, incised part, Bas Conflent the broad valley that follows.
This region is influenced by the Mediterranean climate of the Roussillon plain, hot and dry in summer, with occasional heavy rains (referred to as "cévenol episodes") in late summer and autumn. Like all the Pyrenees, the Conflent region is home to numerous hot springs that have been used for thermal baths since ancient times, and were venerated by pagan peoples before the arrival of Christianity. Numerous human communities (villages, monasteries) have sprung up near these springs over the millennia.
The Saint-André d'Eixalada monastery was built on the right bank of the Têt, close to hot thermal sources, known as Eixalada springs, at a point where the coastal river has cut a defile (Graus defile). Today, several hot water springs are found near this site, and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there was an active spa about a kilometer upstream: the Thuès-les-Bains spa, now a locality including a specialized nursing home, about two kilometers downstream from the commune of Thuès-Entre-Valls. The site of the vanished monastery lies on the edge of Route Nationale 116, at the end of the Graus defile. Here, the right bank of the Têt belongs to the commune of Nyer, while the left bank is part of the commune of Canaveilles.
Toponymy
Several explanations have been given for the word Eixalada, sometimes spelt Exalada.
The Catalan word eixalada (from the verb eixalar) means "cut". This toponym, and others like it (Xalada, Lassada), is fairly common in northern Catalonia and refers to steep places.
The most likely origin of the toponym Eixalada is the Latin verb caelare ("to cut") with the prefix ex. Other etymologies have been proposed, based on the topography and characteristics of the place: based on acquis ("waters"), exire ("to go out", the place is at the exit of a defile), scala ("ladder", stepped ascent, which corresponds to the current name of Graus), or laxicare ("to let go"). The presence of thermal springs has also led some authors to associate the name with the verb exhalare ("to exhale").
The monastery is named Saint-André because it is dedicated to Andrew the Apostle, one of Jesus' first disciples.
History
Context
During the late seventh and early ninth centuries, Charlemagne's troops succeeded in driving back the Saracens (Muslims) south of the Pyrenees. To reinforce the newly conquered territories, Charlemagne founded the Spanish March, a group of counties linked to the emperor. In the Catalan counties to the east of the Pyrenees, numerous monasteries were founded to clear, populate and manage these new territories under Frankish rule, and to propagate and strengthen the Christian faith.
These monasteries grew, when they could, thanks to donations, land purchases, and the privileges granted to them by the Carolingian kings in texts known as diplomas. Seventeen Catalan monasteries received royal diplomas during the ninth century. In many cases, these monasteries had modest and difficult beginnings, and many failed and disappeared.
Family foundation
The first text to mention Saint-André d'Eixalda dates back to 840 or 841, when a group of fourteen people from the same family donated an inheritance of a farm (vilar) named Paulià, which they had inherited from their grandparents or earlier (the land may have been in the family for over a hundred years). This could be the founding text of the monastery. The names of the donors are mentioned in the document: Erall, Adanasinda, Forídia, Adesinda, Major, Goteleba, Quideberga, Quixilo, Alexandre, Vurili, Tructulf, Vuló as well as the priests Comendat and Argemir. Tructulf is mentioned as a monk, along with another man called Concés. A man named Comendat is later mentioned as abbot, although it's not entirely clear whether this is the same person as the donor. The monastery was probably originally made up of the monks Tructulf and Concés and the priest Comendat.
In its early days, the monastery of Saint Andrew of Eixalada was essentially a family enterprise, living modestly, its only possessions being the Vilar Paulià and some scattered lands. This situation hardly changed until 854.
Expansion
In July 854, although their motives are unknown (they could have founded their own monastery elsewhere), several much wealthier monks from Urgell moved into the Saint-André d'Eixalada monastery, making substantial donations. These included Protasius (sometimes called Protais in French, or Protasi in Catalan), who held the title of archpriest, along with three priests: Sanctiol (or Sanctiolus), Recesvind (or Recceswindus) and Victor, monk Atila and subdeacon Baro. They agree to abide by the rules of the community, but their gift comes with several limitations. They retain usufruct and become each other's heirs: on the death of one of the newcomers, it is his companions who inherit the property, not the monastery. Should they decide to leave the monastery, they would take their property with them. The monastery would only definitively inherit these gifts, according to this agreement, on the death of the last of these donors.
Donations of land, money, tools and livestock were substantial. The richest donor was Protasius. He obtained the status of conversus, which set him apart from the other occupants of the monastery. He kept in his personal estate a sum of money and a piece of land at Cuxa, further down the valley, as well as great freedom in the use of his possessions.
Protasius' role became central to the monastery's development: right up to the end, he was the one who appeared in all the acquisition texts, whether because the land was purchased with his money, or because his influence played a decisive role. From the time of his arrival, the monastery was under two-headed management: it was run jointly by the incumbent abbot and Protasius, who never held the title of abbot at Eixalada.
The first text to mention Protasius in the Conflent region dates back to 845, already in Cuxa. Before settling in Eixalada, he acquired several new possessions and gained influence in the region around Cuxa (Taurinya, le Llech and Codalet).
Four months after his arrival, Protasius obtained the donation of the Entrevalls vilar. These lands were fundamental to the monastery's viability: they were adjacent to the community (the text says ubi edificatum est ipsum monasterium: "where this monastery is built"), ensuring its independence.
After 854, the monastery remained undocumented for ten years. During this time, a newcomer never mentioned in previous texts, named Witiza, became abbot of Saint-André.
Protasius founded a church dedicated to Saint Germain on his Cuxa estate, in 866 or earlier, as indicated by a donation text dated that year. Monks reside here.
Royal Abbey
In 871, the new Count of Conflent, Miro, traveled to Douzy (now in the Ardennes department, on the other side of France) to present himself to the Frankish king Charles the Bald. He obtained a diploma from the king, granting the monastery the title of royal abbey. As a result, the monastery came under the Count's protection, and the management of the monastery, previously in the hands of the abbot and Protasius, was supplemented by a third head in the person of the Count. This text obliged the abbey to follow the Rule of St. Benedict, granted it the free election of its abbot and exempted it from ordinary justice, the payment of cens, and any intervention by the bishop in its internal or religious affairs.
In 874, Baro, one of Protasius' companions from Urgell, became abbot. This probably means that Witiza had died.
In 878, Miron, Count of Conflent, became Count of Roussillon, with the spiritual and logistical support of the monastery, which provided him with both men and the resources of its extensive domain during a conquest that required the use of force.
Destruction and aftermath
The monastery was destroyed by a flood in 878. According to d'Abadal i de Vinyals, based on dates mentioned in texts, the disaster occurred between 30 August and 13 September. For Pierre Ponsich, who works with flood statistics for the region, the most likely date is October; early September would be an exceptionally early date for this type of episode.
The flood washed away the monastery's buildings and possessions. The church was destroyed, as were the archives. The monks managed to save only the most precious documents, including the royal diploma and cartulary.
After the destruction of Eixalada, Baro was dismissed as a monk in favor of Protasius. It was decided not to rebuild the monastery, but to move it to Cuxa, on Protasius' private land. This brought the community closer to Prades, a rapidly developing town, and to Ria, the birthplace of Count Miron's family. The days of the isolated monastery in the canyons were over, and the abbey took on a growing political role.
In 879, Protasius died. In his will dated 13 September 879, he mentions an abbey of fifty monks accompanied by twenty servants. A later text counts thirty-five monks in the new Cuxa abbey, giving a death toll for the flood of around fifteen monks. The number of other people living in and around the Eixalda monastery is unknown.
After the monastery's destruction, a hamlet remained on the site until the 14th century, when it disappeared. In 1860, the Thuès-les-Bains spa was built.
In 1886, in his epic poem Mount Canigó, the Catalan poet Jacint Verdaguer devoted many verses to the tragedy of Saint-André d'Eixalada and the founding of Saint-Michel de Cuxa.
Possessions
Historian Pierre Ponsich has drawn up an inventory of the possessions of the Saint-André d'Eixalada monastery, which have been enriched over time. This inventory is summarized in the following tables.
Churches
The Saint-Germain de Cuxa church, whose exact location is unknown, was replaced by the Saint-Michel de Cuxa abbey.
According to Lluís Basseda, all that remains of the Saint-Sauveur church are its ruins and a name: Camp de l'Església (Champ de l'Église on the IGN 1:25,000 map), near a ruined farmhouse called Mas Llech.
The churches dedicated to the apostles Peter, Thomas, and John are first mentioned in a diploma issued by Charles the Bald in 871.
Nothing remains of the church of Saint-Thomas, located further up the Têt valley, apart from the name of a place designated Saint-Thomas. Like the monastery, it was built in an area with several thermal springs. Today, a spa called Saint-Thomas-les-Bains is located near the original site.
The church of Saint-Pierre d'Eixalada is also in ruins. The few remains currently visible seem to date from the 11th century.
For d'Abadal, the church of Saint-Jean is impossible to locate. Ponsich places it in Entre-Valls (or Entresvalls), where there is still a church of St. John, perhaps built in the 12th century.
The church of Saint-Vincent de Campllong has also been reduced to an overgrown ruin, to the extent that the remains of the building are difficult to date.
Real estate
The first document of 840–841 granted the monastery almost the entire territory of Fuilla, in the middle of the Conflent region. This landholding continued to expand until the catastrophe of 878, with the following acquisitions.
Note
The towns and villages given are historical hamlets, villages or lieux-dits. For example, the village of Souanyas must be distinguished from the present-day French commune of the same name. Here, Souanyas refers to the village, chief town of the commune, which includes the hamlet of Marians.