{{Short description|Abbey located in Pyrénées-Orientales, France}} thumb|Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa The '''abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa''' ({{Langx|ca|Sant Miquel de Cuixà}}) is a Benedictine abbey located in the territory of the commune of Codalet, in the Pyrénées-Orientales ''département'', in southwestern France.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXWRgP-0KBkC&pg=PA202 |page=202 |last=Santoro |first=Nicholas Joseph |title=Mary in Our Life: Atlas of the Names and Titles of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and Their Place in Marian Devotion |publisher=iUniverse |year=2011 |isbn=9781462040223}}</ref> It was founded initially in 840, and then refounded at its present site in 878,<ref name="KiblerZinn"/><ref>{{cite web |work=Metropolitan Museum of Art |title=Cuxa Cloister |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/470314 |accessdate=27 August 2018}}</ref> after a flood destroyed the original buildings. It was an important cultural centre in the regency of Abbot Oliba.
Parts of what was once building material from the 12th century abbey now partially make up The Cloisters museum in New York City.<ref name="KiblerZinn">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XEQrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA844 |page=844 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2017 |title=Routledge Revivals: Medieval France (1995): An Encyclopedia |isbn=9781351665667 |first1=William W. |last1=Kibler |first2=Grover A. |last2=Zinn}}</ref>
==Foundation and apogee of the abbey== upright|thumb|Cloister [[File:St-Michel-de-Cuxa et Canigou.jpg|thumb|The abbey is situated at the foot of the northern side of the Canigó massif.]] The origins of Cuixà abbey lie at Sant Andreu d'Eixalada, an abbey founded by the Benedictines in about 840, and located at the head of the Tet valley.<ref name="Presenting">{{cite web |url=http://abbaye-cuxa.com/index.php/presentation/?lang=en |title=Presenting |work=Abbaye St Michel de Cuxa |accessdate=19 August 2018}}</ref> In the autumn of 878, the river broke its banks, flooding and destroying the monastery (located near the river-bed) and causing a likely death toll of at least 12.<ref name="ShiftingLandmarks">{{cite book |page=[https://archive.org/details/shiftinglandmark00bowm/page/153 153] |url=https://archive.org/details/shiftinglandmark00bowm |url-access=registration |title= Shifting Landmarks: Property, Proof, and Dispute in Catalonia Around the Year 1000 |year=2004 |publisher=Cornell University Press |last=Bowman |first=Jeffrey Alan |isbn=9780801439902}}</ref> The remainder of the monks were forced to seek shelter in the surrounding countryside. The community then transferred to its present site at Cuixà, a minor cenobitic community dedicated to Saint Germanus, led by Father Protais.<ref name="Presenting"/>
In June 879, Protasius and Miro the Elder, count of Conflent and Roussillon, signed the founding treaty of the new monastery, whereby Cuixà extended its properties with those contributed by Eixalada and Protasius was named abbot.
The abbey continued under the protection of the count of Cerdanya and Conflent. The territory then came under the domain of the family of Wilfred I, count of Barcelona in 870. In about 940, under the initiative of Sunifred II of Cerdanya, a new church dedicated to Saint Michael was built. In 956 the building was refurbished and made more sumptuous; the main altar was consecrated on 30 September 974 by Garí, a monk from Cluny who led five southern monasteries.
When the Doge of Venice, Pietro I Orseolo, accepted Romuald's advice to become a monk, he abdicated and fled in the night to Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa accompanied by Romuald and his companion, Marinus, who established a hermitage nearby.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}
Cesare Borgia probably never came to the abbey, although he was named by his father abbot of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa in 1494, one among many other revenue-earning titles, which he kept until 1498.<ref>{{Cárdenas: 66 petites histoires du Pays Catalan}}</ref>
The abbey was initially part of the territory of the County of Barcelona, then of the Kingdom of Majorca and the Principality of Catalonia within the Crown of Aragon. After the dynastic union of the Crown of Aragon and the Crown of Castile, all of the lands contained therein became part of Habsburg Spain. During the Reapers' War or Catalan Revolt against Philip IV of Spain, the Catalan Republic (1641) asked for the protection of the King of France Louis XIII, who became Count of Barcelona. At the end of the Thirty Years' War, Philip IV of Spain and Louis XIII of France signed the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees<ref name="Presenting"/> whereby Northern Catalonia was annexed to the Kingdom of France, while the rest of Catalonia came back under Spanish rule. The abbey was nationalized along with other ecclesiastical properties during the French Revolution of 1789, and subsequently sold, with the clergy evicted.<ref name="Presenting"/> Subsequently, the buildings fell into disrepair.<ref name="Presenting"/>
Some sculpture from the abbey found its way into a collection<ref>{{cite news |title=RARE RELICS KEPT FROM AMERICA BY FRENCH PROTEST; Plan of George Gray Barnard, the Sculptor, to Bring to This Country the Twelve Fine Old Marble Pillars from Abbey of St. Michel de Cuxa Halted by Action of French Government -- History of Famous Old Shrine. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1913/06/15/archives/rare-relics-kept-from-america-by-french-protest-plan-of-george-gray.html |work=The New York Times |date=June 15, 1913}}</ref> of George Grey Barnard (1863–1938), a prominent American sculptor, and an avid collector and dealer of medieval art. In 1914, Barnard opened his "Cloisters" exhibit on Fort Washington Avenue, New York, along with sculpture from a number of medieval sites. The Cloisters was rebuilt and expanded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1938 at Fort Tryon Park, Upper Manhattan and is now a significant Medieval museum within the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The centerpiece and namesake of the museum is a cloister built using fragments of the 12th century cloister of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Met Cloisters Map |url=https://maps.metmuseum.org/ |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |accessdate=August 26, 2018}}</ref>
The Cuxa abbey was refounded in 1919 and subsequently restored under the Cistercians, an order which originated as an offshoot of the Benedictines.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ggJhMBaTf0YC&pg=PA69 |page=69 |title=Exploring Romanesque Architecture in Catalonia |last=Garwood |first=Peter |year=2013 |publisher=Don Hale |isbn=9781907163432}}</ref> The abbey was transferred back to the Benedictines in 1965.
==Music festival== The abbey is one of the venues used by the Pablo Casals Festival, which was founded in 1950. Pablo Casals was filmed in the abbey in 1954 as he performed Bach's Suite No. 1 in G Major.
==See also== * French Romanesque architecture
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category-inline}}
* [http://abbaye-cuxa.com/index.php/presentation/?lang=en Official website] - French. History page in English. * Sant Andreu d'Eixalada Catalan Wikipedia page. * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120718213149/http://www.pyrenees-decouverte.com/en/visites/artroman/st-michel-cuxa/index.php Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa] - Visiting information - Dead link 2015
{{Visitor attractions in Pyrénées-Orientales}} {{Coord|42|35|42|N|02|25|00|E|region:FR-66_type:landmark|display=title}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbey Of Saint-Michel-De-Cuxa}} Category:840 establishments Category:9th-century establishments in France Category:Christian monasteries established in the 9th century Category:Benedictine monasteries in France Category:Buildings and structures in Pyrénées-Orientales Category:Churches in Pyrénées-Orientales Category:Romanesque architecture in France Category:Monuments historiques of Pyrénées-Orientales Category:Cesare Borgia