Monastery of Sant Père de Rodes

I should know by now that if the point of interest is a castle or a monestary, then there will be a steep, twisting road up the mountain to get there, and so it was with Sant Père de Rhodes, high above the Mediterranean.   The Monestary began in the 10th century, and by the 12th and 13th century, it was one of the most important centers of spiritual, political, and economic power of its day.   Wars, epidemics, attacks by pirates, and waning religious rigor however, began to take their toll, and by the mid 19th century, the last remaining Benedictine community was dissolved.  The Monestary fell into ruin and suffered extensive plundering, even the use of dynamite, to remove artifacts.  By 1930 when it was declared a historic site by the Spainish government,  stone archways and columns, marble portals and carved  panels had been clandestinely removed.   These pieces now reside in museums and collections around the world. The Monestary was in shambles - ruins.  Interestingly, the restoration does not attempt to replace the decorative elements removed, only to repair the structure itself.    It was painful to see what had been plundered, yet at the same time, with a few fragments and hints, you could imagine on the smooth surfaces.