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This abbey is situated in the Conflent near Prades
and Vernet-les-Bains
.
This set which inspired many convents of the region, is a pure work of art of the Romanic art. The history begins in the year 878 when around thirty monks, survivors of the convent of Eixalada (in Conflent) after violent floods, came to settle down in the fertile valley of Cuxa.
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They found there the very first abbey in 883, with the protection and the money of the counts of Cerdagne and the support of the clergy.
This set built during two different periods, the first one being the work of the Cistercian abbot Garin, man of action and big traveller of the tenth century, and the second one is the work of the abbot Olida, a craftsman of a great lot of changes realized in the greatest Catalan convents, (Rippol or Montserrat).
Unfortunately, with time going on, its cultural influence diminishes until being totally forgotten.
During the Revolution, it was sold, destroyed and scattered.
It is the sculptor Georges Grey Barnard who, in 1907, finds and buys back the major part of the capitals belonging to the galleries of the convent.
Since 1938, the convent of Cuxa dominates the valley of Hudson, because of the restoration made by the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
For any information, please, contact the Abbey Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa.
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