How did the Catalan nobility live in the Middle Ages? How was he fed? What diseases did they have? What was the life expectancy? Did they die young or old? In what state did they reach the end of their lives? These are some of the questions that a sensational discovery in the Royal Monastery of Santes Creus (Aiguamúrcia, Alt Camp) will help answer. The bodies of a dozen nobles buried between the 13th and 14th centuries belonging to five different families have been located in monumental restoration works, with an associated archaeological excavation. The discovery is presented this morning in the Gothic enclosure.
The bodies have appeared intact, just as they were placed there 500 or 600 years ago. Occupy an area in the north gallery of the Santes Creus cloister, which Kings Jaume el Just and Blanca d’Anjou wanted to convert into a pantheon of Catalan royalty. The state of conservation has surprised archaeologists, because according to existing documentation those burials had been looted. And not. Until last October, when they were discovered, they had been there as is. About 200,000 days.
The discovery occurred within the framework of the restoration work on this medieval Catalan jewel, to which the culture department and the Fundació la Caixa are allocating just over 3.6 million euros within the Tempa de Gòtic program. One of the objectives was the restoration of a set of sarcophagi; what was unknown was that they were occupied.
The restoration began in April of last year with the aim of resolving the pathologies of the cloister, ensuring the conservation of the complex by waterproofing the roofs and improving the water drainage systems.
Despite the elongated chronology, the sarcophagi are stylistically quite similar. According to the heraldry present in the front decoration, and on the covers, the burials are from the Cervelló, Cervera (two different branches), Queralt, Puigvert and Moncada families, all of them belonging to the Catalan middle-high nobility and active between the 13th and 14th centuries.
The degree of conservation has made it possible to extract samples of fabrics, textiles and bone remains, which are being analyzed, as well as objects linked to the deceased. It also opens unprecedented perspectives of study regarding the burial systems of the medieval Catalan nobility and funerary rituals.
The research team, led by the Catalan Cultural Heritage Agency of the Department of Culture, is made up of an archaeologist, an anthropologist and a restorer and other specialists. It also has professionals from the Béns Mobles de Catalunya Restoration Center for preventive conservation and treatment of textile and wood remains, and with the participation of the Pius de Valls Hospital to carry out diagnostic tests through imaging.
The Temps de Gòtic program includes restoration interventions and museographic adaptation of the Florentine front of the Seu de Manresa (Bages), the restoration of the church of Sant Llorenç de Lleida (Segrià), the restoration of a section of the Wall of Tortosa, of the Cathedral of Santa María and the Reales Colegios de Sant Jaume and Sant Maties in Tortosa (Baix Ebre), among others.
