Photo of the Day: The Pool - with Cloisters

A privately-owned back yard on the edge of Palamós, in Girona Province, Spain, with hitherto unknown breath-taking architecture. Image Source: Medieval News.

Medieval News reports that a Spanish 12th century cloister, unlisted by the historical conservation authority, has been brought to public attention by a scholar in Italy (thanks to -S.):

An exceptional 12th-century cloister has been sitting for half a decade inside the garden of a private home in Girona province without anyone knowing about it, except its owners and a few locals. Gerardo Boto, a professor of medieval art at Girona University, unveiled the discovery at a recent Barcelona art convention, where he amazed Romanesque architecture experts with a detailed description of the find, which is already being compared to the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos in Burgos. Most remarkably, it does not show up in any official inventory, nor does it enjoy cultural protection from any public agency. Click here to read this article from El Pais.

The owners have not given scholars permission to have access to the property. This is a good illustration of the ongoing tension between public and private, wherein private worlds can still preserve historical artifacts untouched for centuries, as in a time capsule. And public knowledge has not extended absolutely everywhere, yet.

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