The Cartujos, a religious branch of the Catholic church, set up camp below the stunning limestones "sacred Mountains" named as such "Montsant" here in El Priorato. Aside from their despotic stronghold on the local lands and it's peoples (proof being how their monastery was sacked and burned down within 3 days of their demise by local townsfolk), they seem to be the ones who began wine production out here - so we have that to thank them for, plus some very interesting, albeit derelict, ruins of their monastery. We wondered why if they were confined in their (rather spacious) quarters why they lived to be 90 and mostly died of gout? We had many a drunken ¨tertulia¨ about this after meals and concluded these guys stuffed themselves with salted fish, wine and turtle soup, and would then flagellate themselves for their drunken stupors, boredom-induced masturbation and the unconfirmed (but surely it had to be) secret entrance into their quarters of a string of voluptuous local damsels... no it's not a syndrome of modern times. Of course the tour made no mention of that. It was rather interesting though. Here's a pic of the reconstructed entrance and another of Grandfather and Grandson in
Cartujano-style contemplation.
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