The abbey of Saint-Michel de Cuxa (also spelled Cuixà, from the Catalan name Sant Miquel de Cuixà) is a Benedictine monastery located at the foot of Canigou, in the commune of Codalet in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales in the Occitania region (Pyrenees, France).
It is part of the Spanish province of the Congregation of Subiaco (Benedictine confederation).
The abbey church is partly pre-Romanesque and its cloister marks the birth of Roussillon Romanesque sculpture in the 12th century. The whole ensemble is classified as historical monument.
It was founded initially in 840, and then refounded at its present site in 878, after a flood destroyed the original buildings.
Parts of what was once building material from the 12th century abbey now partially make up The Cloisters museum in New York City.
Music festival
The abbey is one of the venues used by the Pablo Casals Festival, which was founded in 1950. Pablo Casals was filmed in the abbey in 1954 as he performed Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G Major.
History
The abbey was initially part of the territory of the County of Barcelona, then of the Kingdom of Majorca and the Crown of Aragon. After the dynastic union of the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Castile, all of the lands contained therein became part of Habsburg Spain.
During the Reapers’ War or Catalan Revolt against Philip IV of Spain, the Catalan Republic (1641) asked for the protection of the King of France Louis XIII, who became Count of Barcelona. At the end of the Thirty Years’ War, Philip IV of Spain and Louis XIII of France signed the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees whereby Northern Catalonia was annexed to the Kingdom of France, while the rest of Catalonia came back under Spanish rule.
The abbey was nationalized along with other ecclesiastical properties during the French Revolution of 1789, and subsequently sold, with the clergy evicted. Subsequently, the buildings fell into disrepair.
Address: Route de Taurinya, 66500 Codalet, France
Hours:
Monday 9:30–11:50 AM, 2–6 PM
Tuesday 9:30–11:50 AM, 2–6 PM
Wednesday 9:30–11:50 AM, 2–6 PM
Thursday 9:30–11:50 AM, 2–6 PM
Friday 9:30–11:50 AM, 2–6 PM
Saturday 9:30–11:50 AM, 2–6 PM
Sunday 2–6 PM
Phone: +33 4 68 96 15 35
Shortest distances by car
From Paris: 8 hr 26 min (891 km) via A71 and A75
From Toulouse: 2 hr 36 min (248 km) via A61
From Marseille: 3 hr 44 min (359 km) via A9
From Nice: 5 hr 10 min (518 km) via A8 and A9
From Monaco: 5 hr 28 min (540 km) via A8 and A9
From Andorra: 2 hr 22 min (118 km) via D66
From Madrid: 7 hr 57 min (729 km) via A-2
From Moscow: 37 hr (3,465 km) via E30/M1
From Belgrade: 19 hr 9 min (1,843 km) via E70
From Istanbul: 29 hr (2,793 km) via E70
From Bern: 7 hr 37 min (798 km) via A9
See here France travel guide
See here Spain travel guide
See here Pyrenees travel guide
See here Andorra travel guide
