The Monastery

DIGITAL GUIDE FOR VISITS TO THE SANTO DOMINGO DE SILOS MONASTERY

The Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos is one of the most emblematic abbeys in Castilla y León due to its history dating back over ten centuries, the quality of its artistic works and its monastic community, which maintains the spirit of the rule of Saint Benedict and its cultural legacy, notably Gregorian chant stands out.

This audio guide provides information on the parts of the monastery that can be visited, as well as an outline of its history and cultural heritage.

The monastery is the building complex in which the community of monks live, organised on the basis of a rule that guides their spirituality, regulates the liturgy of the religious services and the activities of prayer and work.

Architecturally, the monastery consists of different areas: the church, in which the liturgical celebrations are held and the cloister at the south of the church around which all the rooms are organised – the chapter hall and scriptorium to the east, the refectory or dining room and kitchen to the south on the ground floor and the dormitory on the upper floor and the guest quarters to the west. In addition to these buildings, there is a vegetable garden in the monastic enclosure itself, and a number of agricultural buildings scattered around. Other religious communities or priories and all the properties – farmland, farms, mills and surrounding hills, historically important although less so nowadays – depend on the monastery.

MONASTIC LIFE AND THE BENEDICTINE ORDER

Monastic life in Santo Domingo de Silos began in the 10th century, under Benedictine rule from the 11th century, and was maintained until the Ecclesiastical Confiscation and Exclaustration Decree of 1835. This was followed by several decades which saw a dispersal of its collections of document, the sale of its properties and a gradual deterioration of its buildings. In 1880, the Bishop of Burgos ceded the monastery of Silos to the French congregation of Solesmes and King Alfonso XII authorised the new establishment. The monks from the French monastery of Saint-Martin de Ligugé in Poitiers were responsible for the restoration of the monastery, the collection of manuscripts and works of art and the establishment of Benedictine monastic life.

The rule drawn up by Saint Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century AD includes the organisation of the monks’ life in a stable community, guides their spirituality and describes the virtues that should govern their behaviour. Prayer and work constitute the monks’ daily lives. Prayer is a monk’s main dedication and is carried out within the community with the celebration of the Eucharist and the Divine Office – or the Liturgy of the Hours – distributed throughout the day in seven liturgical acts, or in private at different times of the day with the meditative reading of Scripture and patristic and liturgical texts.

Gregorian chant

In liturgical celebrations, Gregorian chant has special significance, a cultural heritage that dates back to the early Middle Ages which has been further nourished in the 20th century and in which the monastic community of Silos is renowned both for its interpretation and for the work carried out in its conservation and the dissemination of knowledge.

Gregorian chant is a sung prayer in which the text and its devout interpretation are important, without the individual protagonism of its performers. The text is written in Latin, with the exception of the Greek Kyrie Eleison, with a single melodic line and performed a cappella, without instrumental accompaniment. The musical notation is in tetragram – a set of four parallel horizontal lines on which the notes are drawn by means of small black squares, including the text at the bottom.

The survival and maintenance of Gregorian chant is one of the attractions for visitors and complements the visit to the monastery.

Historical references of the monastery

The first reference to the monastery appears in a 13th century copy of a document from 954 in its archives which records the donation of territories by the Count of Castile, Fernán González, to the Saint Sebastian Monastery in Silos, its first patronage. Throughout the 9th and 10th centuries, small monasteries were founded in Castile to consolidate and organise their territories at an unstable time due to the repeated Islamic incursions from the Caliphate of Córdoba to the south. This monastery, dedicated to Saint Sebastián, was joined by the nearby monasteries of San Pedro de Arlanza and San Pedro de Cardeña.

In 1041, the monk Domingo arrived in Silos from the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla in the Rioja region, supported by King Fernando I, who united the kingdoms of León and Castile. Appointed as Abbot, Dominic stabilised the religious community, fostered its spiritual strength and promoted the enlargement of the monastery. For his work in revitalising the monastery and the repercussions of his miracles, he was canonised three years after his death in 1073 and the monastery became an important centre of regional pilgrimage, together with San Millán de la Cogolla. This importance led to the enlargement of the church and the transfer of the saint’s tomb to its interior, consecrating an altar to his memory. During Dominic’s time as Abbot, the monastery adopted the Cluniac monastic guidelines and extended its territorial domain. A period in which a series of donations were received from the monarchy and the nobility increased its economic and legal power. Among the latter, the Finojosa family stands out, who established a family pantheon in the monastery over several generations.

Abbot Fortunius (1073-1100), Dominic’s successor, introduced reforms to the ecclesiastical liturgical rites that came in during the last quarter of the 11th century and which were reflected in the great activity of the monastery’s scriptorium. During these years, Silos played an important role in the consolidation of the new territories of the kingdom of Castile after King Alfonso VI’s conquest of Toledo (1085) and as an intercessor in the freeing of captives. Progressively and in a short period of time, the monastery increased its spiritual authority and devotion to Saint Dominic grew, with the monk Grimaldo writing his hagiography between the late 11th and early 12th centuries.

Between the last two decades of the 11th century and the first three decades of the 12th century, the church was extended, with an upper part with three apses added and a transept built later. In 1125, the monastery changed its name from Saint Sebastian to Saint Dominic and throughout the first half of the 12th century, it gained independence from episcopal jurisdiction and became directly dependent on the Holy See.

In the last third of the 12th century, the monastery underwent a period of renovation, reflected in the completion of the lower cloister and the construction of several annexes, the extension of the church to the west and the construction of a portico on the north façade. The first floor of the cloister was built at the beginning of the 13th century.

The late Middle Ages was a less brilliant period for the monastery and its buildings were barely extended. A 1384 fire affected a large part of the monastery which had to be rebuilt, at which time a panelled ceiling was added to the lower cloister.

In the early 16th century, the chapter hall was transformed into a burial chapel for the abbots of the monastery. In 1512, the monastery joined the Benedictine Congregation of Valladolid, one of the oldest and grandest monasteries in the city. Throughout the 16th century, several alterations were planned for the church and cloister although they were only carried out in the church: a chapel in the Gospel nave of the church and the opening of the southern transept to facilitate access to the sacristy.

In the first decade of the 18th century, the western façade of the Romanesque church door was built and the statues of Saint Dominic and those of the Kings Recaredo and Alfonso VI the Restorer, the presumed founder and benefactor of the monastery, were placed inside. Other alterations saw the removal of the portico on the northern façade. In 1732 it was decided to move the saint’s tomb from the church to a chapel above the old chapterhouse, which required the dismantling of the late Gothic roof of the old chapterhouse. The main entrance to the monastery is located on the western side while the façade in the centre is divided into three levels, the lower with a semicircular arcade, in the centre a niche with Saint Dominic and in the upper part a coat of arms with an inscription below showing 1739 as the year the work was undertaken.

In 1751, after obtaining permission from the Congregation of Valladolid, the original Romanesque church, which was in a very poor state of repair, was demolished. The project for the new church, whose plans are conserved in the monastery, was drawn up by Ventura Rodríguez, with the works directed by Antonio Machuca and assisted by the monk-architect Fray Simón Lexalde. Due to economic difficulties, several of the planned parts were removed and work was not completed until late 1793.

The unstable 19th century began with the invasion of Napoleon’s troops in 1808, a situation that forced the monks of Santo Domingo de Silos to protect their property from seizure. To prevent looting, the monks of the abbey hid a large part of the archive and the silver urn containing the relics of Saint Dominic in the small village of Moncalvillo de la Sierra, camouflaging other valuables inside the monastery. Ecclesiastical confiscation and the exclaustration of religious orders in 1835 marked the beginning of a 45-year period marked by an absence of monastic community life. However, until 1857, Father Abbot Rodrigo Echevarría remained at the monastery, first as the person charged by the government with taking inventories and looking after the building, and from 1846 as parish priest of Silos due to the death of Father Fulgencio Palomero, who also ran the pharmacy as apothecary and owner, having bought it in 1820. This allowed him to save several of the monastic goods, including the sacristy treasures, part of the library and its manuscripts and part of the pharmacy, which he left in the hands of priests from neighbouring villages. All the manuscripts went with him to Segovia, when he was appointed bishop of the diocese. On his death in 1875, he left these goods to the monks of Silos, now resident in Madrid, who finally put them up for sale with the proceeds going to the restoration of the monastery of Silos in response to a request made by the Archbishop of Burgos. In 1877, they were in the hands of an antiquarian in Paris and were put up for sale at auction, most of them being acquired by the National Library of Paris, the British Museum and a few other collectors which at least have made it possible to preserve these documents, although information on their final location has been lost for a small part thereof. The gradual ruin of the monastery buildings also led to the transfer of several works of art to the Provincial Museum of Burgos – chests, reliquaries, the enamel frontal from the tomb of Saint Dominic – despite the protests of the parish priest, Father Sisebuto Blanco, on the grounds that they were objects dedicated to worship and that the move was not authorised by the Archbishop of Burgos.

In 1862, the paintings in the monastery premises were taken to Burgos Museum, but not those in the church and sacristy, while the following year saw 6,090 volumes from the Silos library transferred to the provincial library in the city. Previously in 1850, Pascual de Gayangos had taken 402 volumes from the Silos library to the Royal Academy of History in Madrid.

In 1880, the new community of Benedictine monks from France moved in, ushering in a new period of renewal of the monastery’s spiritual life and its gradual restoration.