{"id":2107,"date":"2013-10-27T10:38:31","date_gmt":"2013-10-27T14:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/~travelwriting\/?page_id=2107"},"modified":"2013-10-27T10:38:31","modified_gmt":"2013-10-27T14:38:31","slug":"ancient-monastery-offers-rare-glimpse-into-place-and-time-from-900-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/travelwriting\/?page_id=2107","title":{"rendered":"Ancient monastery offers rare glimpse into place and time from 900 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted October 27, 2013<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By RIANNA HIDALGO<\/p>\n

NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla.\u00a0\u2014 The 11,000 wooden crates that gathered dust in a warehouse in New York from the mid 1920s to the early 1950s didn\u2019t contain new car parts or department store furniture. They contained the pieces of a Spanish monastery from medieval times.<\/p>\n

That monastery now sits in North Miami Beach, rebuilt as a tourist attraction and church that draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The ancient Spanish Monastery draws thousands each year for weddings, tours and events (Photo by Rianna Hidalgo).<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a rare find,\u201d said Mary Kelly, a visitor from Connecticut. \u201cYou don\u2019t get to see a monastery that\u2019s almost a thousand years old brought over brick-by-brick every day. If you are going to be in Miami, there are a lot of things to see, but this is unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becky Matkov, CEO of the Dade Heritage Trust, said the monastery is a true asset for Miami, both for its beauty and its history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a lot of people realize when they visit is that there is so much more history in Miami than we might think when we look at all the new construction,\u201d Matkov said. \u201cMiami in particular gets so inundated with new everything. It\u2019s such a great learning opportunity and the monastery has such an interesting history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Built between 1133 and 1141 in Northern Spain in honor of the Virgin Mary, it was later renamed after St. Bernard de Clairvaux and was home to Cistercian monks for hundreds of years. In the 1800s, it was seized and converted into a stable during a period of social unrest.<\/p>\n

Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst purchased the monastery in 1925 and intended to ship it to his Hearst Castle in California. A series of misfortunes foiled his plans \u2014 an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth in Spain led to the immediate quarantine of the crates upon arrival in New York and when Hearst\u2019s financial luck ran out, he had to leave the monastery behind. The ancient stones, with all their history and heritage, then sat in a Brooklyn warehouse for more than 25 years.<\/p>\n

Hearst\u2019s empty pockets were good news for Floridians of the future. In 1952, Miami entrepreneurs William Edgemon and Raymond Moss bought the monastery and had it relocated to North Miami Beach.\u00a0Today the monastery is owned and operated by the parish of St. Bernard de Clairvaux.<\/p>\n

Unloading the boxes and rebuilding the monastery was no small feat. It took 23 men three months to open the boxes and construction was the 3D puzzler\u2019s dream. The stones were taken out of the crates during the quarantine, but were put back out of order.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an incredible ordeal to put it together,\u201d Matkov said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t know until they opened the boxes that all the pieces were mixed up and jumbled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to numbers inscribed in the stones and $1.5 million, the workers completed the monastery in 19 months.<\/p>\n

Today, the monastery seems out of place in the bustle of the surrounding area \u2014 strip malls, fast food and pawn shops litter the streets nearby. But inside, it offers visitors tranquility and a glimpse into ancient Spain. The urban scape outside is easily forgotten.<\/p>\n

“It’s such a tranquil setting,” said Matkov, who has visited the Monastery many times. “To have this oasis is really quite lovely.”<\/p>\n

Christine Lauffer, who was visiting from Michigan with her husband, agreed. “It’s incredibly peaceful,” she said.<\/p>\n

Visitors start by entering the Museum Gift Store, where they can peruse ancient furniture and learn about the monastery\u2019s history with a series of photographs.<\/p>\n

\"Tranquil<\/a>

Tranquil gardens set the tone for the monastery cloisters (Photo by Rianna Hidalgo).<\/p><\/div>\n

From there, visitors head into the gardens. From the white statues to the monarch butterflies fluttering from hedge to hedge, it truly sets the tone for the monastery, which is a short jaunt down a stone pathway.<\/p>\n

Inside the cloisters, arched ceilings, stone walls, coats of arms and life-sized marble statues are a constant reminder that the monastery is from a different time and place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very quiet and very inspirational,\u201d said Carson Lauffer, who read about the monastery in a Miami guidebook. \u201cIt made me wish I could be around that kind of building more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The beauty of the property attracts thousands of couples who choose the monastery as their wedding site. Carolina Del Vecchio has been a wedding coordinator at the monastery for 13 years, and said many of them come back to visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see people get married and come back five, 10, 30 years later with their children is beautiful,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve learned to love this place because this is a magic place to work, to have weddings, to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t just a popular venue for weddings \u2014 on a Thursday morning, a photography crew was on its way out just as a young girl preparing for her Quinceanera was on her way in, dress in hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot going on here,\u201d said Mayten Battaile, the parish administrator. \u201cIt\u2019s not just the museum, there are a lot of services and it\u2019s also an active church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Battaile said between all the events last year, the monastery had roughly 50,000 visitors.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The interior of the monastery is adorned with statues and coats of arms (Photo by Rianna Hidalgo).<\/p><\/div>\n

The church \u2014 the St. Bernard de Clairvaux Episcopal Church \u2014 has its services in the chapel within the monastery, which was the dining hall of the original structure. The bell that once called monks to meals still hangs above the door.<\/p>\n

Although not all visitors come for spiritual or religious reasons, it\u2019s hard to ignore the serenity that seems to fill every crack and stone throughout the cloisters.<\/p>\n

For Carson Lauffer, just standing in the presence of something so old with so much history was powerful.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people might not get a lot out of it, but if they come with a sense of stillness and a sense of quietness they will,\u201d Lauffer said. \u201cIf you want to find something deeper and higher in life, this is a good place to start.\u201d<\/p>\n

If You Go<\/strong><\/p>\n