Convent de Sant Domènec de Girona, Gothic church in Girona, Spain
The convent of Sant Domènec comprises a church and two cloisters. The church, dedicated to Nostra Senyora de l'Anunciació, has a single nave with six bays of ribbed vaults, high narrow windows, chapels between buttresses and a polygonal apse. Its simple facade has a round-arched portal with receding archivolts, a rose window and a restored staircase. The conventual building, south of the church, is organised around two cloisters.
Founded in 1253 by Bishop Berenguer de Castellbisbal for the Dominican order, the convent stood in the eastern part of Girona's walled enclosure. The church, begun in 1254, was consecrated in 1339. After the 1835 exclaustration it became a barracks, and the church was restored in 1956–57 by removing an interior floor that had divided it in two.
The convent's name comes from its founders, the Dominican order, and the complex housed the inquisitor Nicolau Eimeric, whose manuscript work was kept here. Two friars from the house were later beatified or canonised: Dalmau Moner in the 14th century and Francesc Coll in the 19th. The cloister's 15 trilobed pointed arches per side rest on twin columns with leafy capitals.
The convent complex now houses the Faculty of Arts (Facultat de Lletres) of the University of Girona, joined since the 2005-2006 academic year by the Faculty of Tourism; the church nave serves as the faculty's Aula Magna. The former military government offices kept part of the convent until the university's full rehabilitation from 2000. Access follows university activity, so ask the faculty in advance about seeing the cloister and the restored Roser chapel.
The convent underwent a surprising transformation, serving as military barracks starting in 1827 before eventually becoming an educational facility. This change from religious to military to academic use reflects the shifts in Girona's history.
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