Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: hermitage

The dolmen, which is over 5,000 years old, consists of the capstone and seven supporting stones. There is a 19 × 16 cm hole in the headstone, known locally as Buraco da Alma (“soul hole”). The hole was made with metal tools and therefore does not date from the time the tomb was built. The observation of mortar in the access area of the chamber has led to the assumption that the anta served as a hermitage in the Middle Ages.

The dolmen, which is over 5,000 years old, consists of the capstone and seven supporting stones. There is a 19 × 16 cm hole in the headstone, known locally as Buraco da Alma (“soul hole”). The hole was made with metal tools and therefore does not date from the time the tomb was built. The observation of mortar in the access area of the chamber has led to the assumption that the anta served as a hermitage in the Middle Ages.

Under the Visigoths, Ávila was one of the most important cities in the kingdom due to its proximity to the capital Toledo. From the 8th to the 11th centuries, Ávila was Moorish. The situation in the contested borderland between the Muslim and Christian worlds prevented prosperity, which only began in the 15th century when the fighting moved further south. The city experienced its heyday in the 16th century. The plague, the expulsion of the Moriscos (baptized Moors), and the emigration of many people to America caused Ávila's gradual decline, from which the city has only slowly recovered since the 19th century. Today the population is around 60,000. The hermitage was built outside the city walls in the 13th century. Despite a remodeling in the 16th century, some original Romanesque elements have been preserved. Tradition holds that in 1519 a tomb containing the remains of San Segundo, the legendary first bishop of Ávila, was found in the hermitage.

Under the Visigoths, Ávila was one of the most important cities in the kingdom due to its proximity to the capital Toledo. From the 8th to the 11th centuries, Ávila was Moorish. The situation in the contested borderland between the Muslim and Christian worlds prevented prosperity, which only began in the 15th century when the fighting moved further south. The city experienced its heyday in the 16th century. The plague, the expulsion of the Moriscos (baptized Moors), and the emigration of many people to America caused Ávila's gradual decline, from which the city has only slowly recovered since the 19th century. Today the population is around 60,000. The hermitage was built outside the city walls in the 13th century. Despite a remodeling in the 16th century, some original Romanesque elements have been preserved. Tradition holds that in 1519 a tomb containing the remains of San Segundo, the legendary first bishop of Ávila, was found in the hermitage.

Already in the early Middle Ages this place, almost on the top of Monte Conero, was inhabited by several hermits who lived in natural caves or caves carved into the rocks. These hermits went to the mountains to found communities. In the early years of the 10th century, there were already two abbeys on the mountain. Two hermitages existed before the 10th century. The hermitage of San Pietro, on top of the mountain, began at the construction of the abbey back. In 1037, the Counts Cortesi , lords of the castle of Sirolo, gave the already existing church on top of the mountain to the abbot Guizemone, to found a monastery. In 1203 the hermitage was enlarged, a cloister was built and the church was renovated. The church has a basilical plan divided into three naves, a projecting apse above the crypt, and a 13th-century bell tower on the right side. The Benedictines experienced a slow decline so that in 1514 the Bishop of Ancona entrusted the church of San Pietro and the hermitage to the Congregation of the Hermits of Santa Maria in Gonzaga. After 1518 the Camaldolese occupied the caves and the church halfway up the mountain and clashes between the two religious orders began. When in 1558 a fire completely burned the roofs of the church of San Pietro and the adjacent rooms, the Camaldolese conquered the complex of San Pietro and restored it, equipping the church with a new Baroque facade in 1651. The Camaldolese remained on Conero until the abolition of the monastery in 1860. The church was locked and what was left from the monastery is a posh hotel meanwhile. www.hotelmonteconero.it/en

The "Ermitage Saint-Gerbold" is hidden in the woods between Coutances and the village of Gratot. The construction of first small chapel here was funded by Philippe d’Argouges, Lord of Gratot, in 1403. Enlarged and fortified over the time, this was a hermitage upto the French Revolution, when it was sold as National Property. In the early 19th century, it was in the possession of the Argouges-family again, but was again sold, after the last hermit died in 1830. USed as a barn and later abandoned it fell in ruins, but was saved and finally restaurated in 2000.

Just before I reached Jaca, I passed the "Ermita de San Cristóbal", just next to the camino. I learned the the erection of the hermitage north was comissioned in 1758 by Francisco Villanúa y Lafuente. The chapel was burned down in 1814 by the French in their retreat after the War of Independence. It was rebuilt later by a great-nephew of Francisco, but meanwhile it is vandalized and locked to secure the interior and the still existing furnishings.. Half an hour later I reached Jaca. I had visited Jaca some years ago and now decided to stay an extra-day to visit Castle of San Pedro and the Museum of the Cathedral - and to have dinner again in the restaurant "Meson Serrablo", a place I can really recommend. www.mesonserrablo.com/