Gaudí in Lluc (1908-1914)

During his trips to Majorca, Gaudí visited Lluc's sanctuary, a paradisiacal place in mountains of Tramontana. "Un gran gorg de verdor i de silenci; dins una enclotada solitud ascètica", since he wrote Llorenç Riber (1882-1958), which shelters the basilica of the Virgin of Lluc, mistress of Majorca. Like the Virgin of Montserrat, she is known popularly as "Moreneta", due to the dark colour produced by the oxidation of the original pigments. And, also as it happens in Montserrat, the sanctuary has a child core, founded in the year 1531. The children singers are called "blavets", for the blue colour of their small dresses. Gaudí peregrinated to Lluc on April 30, 1908 and gave an alms of 25 pesetas. The church and the altarpiece, of Renaissance taste, are works of master Jaume Blanquer. The major altar was dedicated on September 27, 1684. The year 1707, the king (claimant) Charles III granted to her the title of "royal chapel", with right to show his shield. On July 22, 1883, in a great peregrination, it was for first time the song “Dins el cor de la muntanya”, by Miquel Costa i Llobera. And the moon of the following summer, August 10, 1884, with a still major peregrination of people of Ciutat and of the Part Forana, the image was crowned as queen of Majorca, according to the pontifical brief of June 27, 1884 of the pope Leon XIII. Two hundred years later, the bishop Campins, great protector of the sanctuary and devout of the Virgin, decided to decorate the whole interior of the church. On October 13, 1908, there raised Lluc with Gaudí, his assistant Joan Rubió i Bellver and the diocesan architect Guillem Reynés. They projected the way of the mysteries of the rosary and the interior decoration of the nave. The bishop Campins entrusted to the sculptor Gabriel Moragues the execution of the plan of decoration indicated by the Catalan architect. On November 26, 1908 the scaffoldings were mounted up to the vault and on November 30 the bishop and the three architects returned to rise. Three months later, it began the decoration, at which the sculptors Moragues and Rafael Vidal were employed up to its ending, on June 30, 1914. Gaudí returned by himself to Lluc on February 26, 1913. On June 17, 1914, the bishop Campins dedicated solemnly the church renewed, turned into a real House of Gold. In 1962, the blessed pope John XXIII honoured it by the title of Minor Basilica.

Josep Maria Tarragona, August 17, 2006
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