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Together, they have visited the Cloisters, a museum in Washington Heights (Jo's neighbourhood) where they have discovered Catalan and Occitan cloisters that were bought during last century and carried from Europe to America, stone by stone.
The Grandma loves Romanesque art, and Jo and she have spent a wonderful day discovering more secrets about these legendary stones. One of this cloisters, Sant Miquel de Cuixà, was originally erected at the Benedictine Abbey of Sant Miquel de Cuixà on Mont Canigó in North Catalonia which was founded in 878.
The Grandma has wanted to visit the cloisters because today is a very important day for the Catalan Countries. They welcome to the Flama del Canigó. It combines with the Sant Joan midsummer celebrations to evoke the common identity of Catalan-speaking lands.
More information: 'La Flama del Canigó', fire that joins Catalan lands
On foot or horseback, by car, bike, boat and any possible means of transport, the Flama del Canigó reaches every corner of the land, thanks to the efforts of numerous groups and associations.
Each village, town and city receives the flame in it own way, with music, devils and dance but always with a shared ritual. Everywhere, when the flame has reached its destination, before the bonfires are lit, a common message is read out to remind everyone of its significance.
Meanwhile, The Newtons have continued preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied the Past Simple of To Be verb.
More information: To Be (Past Simple)
The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in Fort Tryon Park in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City, specializing in European medieval art and architecture, with a focus on the Romanesque and Gothic periods.
Governed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it contains a large collection of medieval artworks shown in the architectural settings of Occitan and Catalan monasteries and abbeys.
Its buildings are centered around four cloisters -the Cuixà, Saint-Guilhem, Bonnefont and Trie- that were acquired by American sculptor and art dealer George Grey Barnard in France before 1913, and moved to New York.
Barnard's collection was bought for the museum by financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Other major sources of objects were the collections of J. P. Morgan and Joseph Brummer.
Rockefeller purchased the museum site in Washington Heights in 1930, and donated it and the Bayard collection to the Metropolitan in 1931. Upon its opening on May 10, 1938, the Cloisters was described as a collection shown informally in a picturesque setting, which stimulates imagination and creates a receptive mood for enjoyment.
More information: The MET Museum
The basis for the museum's architectural structure came from the collection of George Grey Barnard, an American sculptor and collector who almost single-handedly established a medieval art museum near his home in the Fort Washington section of Upper Manhattan.
Barnard was primarily interested in the abbeys and churches founded by monastic orders from the 12th century. Following centuries of pillage and destruction during wars and revolutions, stones from many of these buildings were reused by local populations.
Reputedly he paid $25,000 for the Trie buildings, $25,000 for the Bonnefort and $100,000 for the Cuixà cloisters.
Located on the south side of the building's main level, the Cuixà cloisters are the museum's centerpiece both structurally and thematically. They were originally erected at the Benedictine Abbey of Sant Miquel de Cuixà on Mont Canigó in North Catalonia which was founded in 878.
The monastery was abandoned in 1791 and fell into disrepair; its roof collapsed in 1835 and its bell tower fell in 1839. About half of its stonework was moved to New York between 1906 and 1907. The installation became one of the first major undertakings by the Metropolitan after it acquired Barnard's collection. After intensive work over the fall and winter of 1925-26, the Cuixà cloisters were opened to the public on April 1, 1926.
The Bonnefont cloisters were assembled from several Occitan monasteries, but mostly come from a late 12th-century Cistercian Abbaye de Bonnefont at Bonnefont-en-Comminges, southwest of Tolosa.
The Bonnefont is on the upper level of the museum and gives a view of the Hudson River and the cliffs of the Palisades.
More information: Patrimoni
Washington Heights is a neighborhood in the uppermost part of the New York City borough of Manhattan.
It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest natural point on Manhattan Island by Continental Army troops to defend the area from the British forces during the American Revolutionary War.
Washington Heights is bordered by Inwood to the north along Dyckman Street, by Harlem to the south along 155th Street, by the Harlem River and Coogan's Bluff to the east, and by the Hudson River to the west.
Washington Heights, which before the 20th century was sparsely populated by luxurious mansions and single-family homes, rapidly developed during the early 1900s as it became connected to the rest of Manhattan via the A, C, and 1 subway lines.
Beginning as a middle-class neighbourhood with many Irish and Eastern European immigrants, the neighbourhood has at various points been home to communities of German Jews, Greek Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Russian Americans.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, White residents began to leave the neighbourhood for nearby suburbs as the Black and Latino populations increased. Dominican Americans became the dominant group by the 1980s despite facing economic difficulties, leading the neighbourhood to its status in the 21st century as the most prominent Dominican community in the United States. While crime became a serious issue during the crack cocaine crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, in the 2000s Washington Heights became a much safer community and began to experience some upward mobility as well as gentrification.
Washington Heights is set apart among Manhattan neighbourhoods for its high residential density despite the lack of modern construction, with the majority of its few high-rise buildings belonging to the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. Other higher education institutions include Yeshiva University and Boricua College.
The neighbourhood has generous access to green space in Fort Washington Park, Highbridge Park, and Fort Tryon Park, home to the historical landmarks the Little Red Lighthouse, the High Bridge Water Tower, and the Cloisters respectively.
Other points of interest include Audubon Terrace, the Morris-Jumel Mansion, the United Palace, the Audubon Ballroom, and the Fort Washington Avenue Armory.
More information: Washington Heights
the basic tendency of Romanesque art
remains anti-naturalistic and hieratic.
Arnold Hauser
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