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An adventure in a Cistercian abbey

HOW CAN WE MAKE SURE THAT OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE IS PRESERVED IN THE FUTURE?  

Since 2021 when we began the program “monasteries past present and future”, there has been one idea that has been repeated continuously, namely that it is impossible to maintain our cultural heritage without really knowing it.

It doesn´t matter how big the investments in the rehabilitation of the heritage sites are if new generations take them for granted or even worse, they don´t know about their existence.

On the other hand, we cannot have any guarantee of decent rehabilitations in the future if people in charge of them know nothing about the essence of these places nor they have ever experienced them.

Regarding that, we made a proposal to Irene Pascual, a young lady in charge of events and institutional communication at Monasterio de Valbuena, which is a luxury hotel belonging to the prestigious hotel brand Castilla Termal.

“How about we invite the staff of your hotel, which used to be a monastery, to get to know the everyday life of a real monastery?” This friendly talk was shot in a beautiful old chapel. And here you have it available in Spanish

At the same time, we also organise scholarships for young professionals who every year, travelled to visit real monasteries, and buildings that used to be monasteries but today have a different function such as hotels, cultural centres or museums. After the journey, they have to make an oral presentation talking about their experiences and conclusions they have reached. 

As an example, here you have the talk of the photographer José Luis Martínez Arce, just click here: 

Just like every year we also had the volunteering week. In 2023 it was held in San Pedro de Cardeña, Burgos in the region of Castilla y Leon (Spain). You can find out more about it here

Hora del café

Now in 2024 we were at Monasterio de La Oliva, in Carcastilo, Navarra. Read on to find out what we did.  

A VOLUNTERING WEEK BUT A FILMING WEEK AS WELL  

Pablo Beorlegui durante el rodaje en La Oliva

It was a fun but also intense week. Not only because all the team has been working hard on getting to know the daily life inside a monastery, the real “ora et labora” of the monks, their prayers, playing music, keeping archives, gardening, maintaining supplies, among others, but also because of Miguel Arguibide and Pablo Beorlegui shooting their documentary there

En el campanario de La Oliva

Both are working on a documentary that will be released in autumn and as you can see in the photo below, we are sure that it will be a piece of work of a really high level 🙂 

Pablo y Miguel en un momento del rodaje

 

EXPERIENCES THAT WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN  

We are very much aware of the fact that, in general, the young are quite reluctant to participate in so called “cultural events”. And it´s probably because they associate them with the idea of having to listen to a lecture given by an expert. That is why we devote our efforts to make the young become the real protagonists of these events.

En la cocina del monasterio de La Oliva

Both boys and girls are welcome to participate in our events, although this year no girl signed up for the volunteering week. Everything this year’s volunteers learned when living with the monks helped them to better understand how difficult the maintenance of these big old buildings is.

What is more, everybody contributed to the project with their knowledge. For instance, Iñigo Medrano, who is an industrial engineer, talked about energy efficiency of solar panels and the need for keeping them thoroughly clean. So, here you can see the team cleaning the panels.

Limpiando las placas solares

There were moments of friendly meetings and time for having fun, especially at coffee time – sobremesa, which is typical of the Spanish lifestyle. Sobremesa is a time after lunch, especially during holidays or special days, when people spend their time just talking and sharing thoughts in an informal way.

Sobremesa

One aspect that everybody talked about was the big surprise that the elderly monks turned out to be for them. Their vitality and strength caught the attention of the young volunteers.

It was a worthwhile week. The volunteers had the chance to listen to the architect in charge of the renovation of the church, José Luis Franchez Apecechea.

Visita con José Luis Franchez.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

The volunteering week has been the last activity of the 2023/2024 academic year but not the end of the project.

Pablo and Miguel are still working on their documentary. From January to June 2024, they talked with many people, and it is not possible to include all the conversations in the documentary. For that reason, all the interviews are available on our Youtube channel.

Not only did they visit some monasteries, but they also explored some churches that are not churches anymore. Here you can listen to an interview in La Merced Library.

En la biblioteca de La Merced en Cuenca

It is located close to the seminar and in the old church of Our Lady of La Merced in the beautiful city of Cuenca, (Worldwide Heritage site) which is in the region of Castilla la Mancha, Spain. Click here to listen to the conversation:

Here is another example of a former church, Espacio Torner, also situated in Cuenca.

Just look at the beauty of Monastery of San Juan located in the north of Spain, in the city of Burgos, just on the way of Saint James (Camino de Santiago).

Pablo Ramos Aguado con Pablo Beorlegui y Miguel Arguibide en el antiguo monasterio de San Juan de Burgos

Another day to remember was the filming day with the female students of Instituto Antonio Machado, in the small town of Soria. They spent a morning together at Espacio Santa Clara. Click here if you want to find out more.

En el Espacio Santa Clara en Soria con alumnas del IES Machado

All the volunteers have worked hard, and each has contributed to the project with their creativity, personal worth and values, which makes Patrimonio para Jovenes a brilliant project. It is the result of the sum of high capacities of many enthusiastic people, of people who dare to do something different and who are not afraid to take on challenges.

Los volutnarios en la puerta de la iglesia con el P. Abad

We would also like to thank the Cistercians communities for trusting us. All these activities are described in detail in our annual report. Here you can see the delivery of the 2023 report at the abbey of San Pedro de Cardeña.

P. Abad de Cardeña con la memoria de Patrimonio para jóvenes

Thank you very much everybody for your attention.

Have a nice summer and we are coming back next autumn.