The imposing Spanish monastery transferred to Miami in boxes: that’s how they did it

You may be inside one of the most famous places in the state of Florida in the city of Miami, but you may be unaware that in reality the majestic building was not built there, but was moved brick by brick between continents. That happened with the Ancient Spanish Monastery, the most imposing Spanish monastery of the 12th century.

According to historical reports, the original cloister of the monastery of Santa María la Real de Sacramenia was a small town in the province of Segovia, in Spain, which is estimated to have been built in the year 114.

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According to the Royal Academy of History and Art of San Quirce, in 1925 the journalist William Randolph Hearst, an American billionaire, bought the monastery of Santa María la Real de Sacramenia. After having the economic power in his hands to fulfill this whim, he dismantled the structure brick by brick and moved it to his country, a journey between Europe and the United States.

The entire infrastructure was transported by sea with a total of 11,000 wooden boxes, which not only had the amount of 35,000 blocks but also carried great historical value, according to the Spanish media outlet ‘ABC’.

Although it seemed like a remarkably lucrative project, all of Hearst’s future plans began to crumble as a result of an epidemic that, at that time, was plaguing Spain: foot-and-mouth disease.

To prevent foot-and-mouth disease from spreading through all the states of the American country, the Department of Agriculture made the decision to open box by box and incinerate what was there. Although the bricks were intact, they arrived completely disordered, so rebuilding the monastery became almost impossible, according to information found in different historical reports.

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The project that the tycoon had in mind had several obstacles, starting with the virus and ending with an economic crisis that led Hearst to a depression and, later, to sell the infrastructure at auction.

The fate of the demolished monastery: pieces from hand to hand

After the Spanish structure was promoted at auction, it remained for 26 years in a warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, without anyone being able to see its splendor, the color of its gardens and the imposing rocks that formed it.

Nevertheless, in 1952 the entrepreneurs William Edgemon and Raymond Moss bought the parts of the monastery to build a tourist attraction in Floridaas indicated by the ‘Office of the Spanish Monastery in Miami’.

According to ‘Time’ magazine, the subjects paid for the structure around $500,000 (more than two billion Colombian pesos at the current exchange rate). After they arrived in Miami, the workers took 19 months to rebuild the puzzle. As soon as the total construction was achieved, the cited American media cataloged it as the ‘biggest puzzle in history’.

However, in 1964 it was sold again, this time to billionaire philanthropic Robert Pentland Jr., giving it as a gift to the Episcopal Diocese of Florida.

Now is located in North Miami Beach and is one of the most striking tourist attractions for people who come from all over the world and is open to the public throughout the year.

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The cost to be able to appreciate this classic infrastructure and full of history is 10 dollars for adults (more than 46,000 Colombian pesos) and 5 dollars for children (23,000 Colombian pesos), as read on its website.

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KAROL TATIANA RODRIGUEZ SORACÁ
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