A lot of wine, a horse and a revolver: everything hidden in the subsoil of the Pedralbes monastery

BarcelonaThe monastery of Pedralbes, founded by Queen Elisenda de Moncada in 1326 and where until February a community of Poor Clares still lived, had multiple lives. The archaeological excavations, which began in September 2022 in the Baixada del Monestir and whose results were presented this Tuesday, explain part of the monastery's economic life but also its inability to remain isolated from the country's conflicts.

It was known that the monastery not only produced bread but also wine. The excavations revealed that wine production was quite important, because in the cellars, under the chapter house, there were large wine presses. Initially, it was believed that they were used to store grain, but now it has been confirmed that they were part of the winemaking infrastructure. Furthermore, bioarchaeological studies have made it possible to trace the seeds, and grape seeds predominate by far.

The stewardship houses in the Baixada del Monestir housed the community's service staff. There, among other materials related to wine production, was a large tong in which the wine buried underground was stored. The tongs could hold up to 11,000 liters of wine. They measured 3.3 meters high and 2.3 meters wide. "We know that wine was produced throughout the 18th century and part of the 19th century. This isn't surprising because the monastery is at the foot of Sant Pere Màrtir mountain, in Collserola, and at that time there were many vineyards," explains Anna Bordas, director of the archaeological excavation. During the excavations, presses, silos, and buckets were found. Bordas believes that not all of the wine, produced by the lay staff who lived on the other side of the walls, was for the nuns' consumption. At that time, wine was drunk much more because it was safer than water, which was often unhealthy, but some of the production was marketed.

The famous cottage cheese

Many matoneras (fried cheese) have been found during the excavations. In the 19th century, Pedralbes cottage cheese was famous because its ingredients (whipped almond milk, egg yolk, sugar, and starch) did not contain animal milk. Thus, people who had problems with milk found a way to celebrate Saint Joseph's Day. In fact, a maid from the monastery, Serafina Marsa, who died in Barcelona on March 18, 1876, received the secret formula for making matoneras from the nuns as a wedding gift and began selling them in a store on Portaferrissa Street. Her cottage cheese can still be enjoyed in some Barcelona establishments.

The excavations have made it possible to understand the chronology of these buildings used for service. They were built at the end of the 16th century, and during the 17th century they suffered the ravages of the Reapers' War (1640-1652), as remains of cannonballs have been found in one of the chambers containing ceramic material from that period. As a result of that attack, the dividing wall between dwellings number 5 and 3 was reportedly renovated. This is not the only archaeological reminder left by the violence of the war. Beneath the chapter house were the remains of a horse and, nearby, a revolver. What they were used for is unknown, but they ended up in the cellars sometime in the 19th century, when wine was no longer being made. It was a very turbulent century, especially due to the Carlist Wars that unsettled the country. It was not unusual for the dwellings, which were outside the enclosure zone, to be used by soldiers during times of conflict.

The faunal remains have allowed us to document the differences between the quality of the nuns' diet and those who lived outside and worked for them. "In the stewardship houses, you can find the same types of meat, especially lamb, as in the monastery, but of much lower quality. The nuns used mostly the neck and spine, because they ate a lot of broth, and also the meat used for mortarl, a medieval recipe that would be very similar to meat." In contrast, in the servants' houses, it was mostly the small ones: skull, legs, tongue... These weren't the only differences in the dish. The lay people ate snails; the nuns didn't even try them. The fish are also similar, especially hake and cod, but the nuns kept the larger pieces.