Sant Feliu de Monars

To reach Sant Feliu de Monars, a church also known in ancient times as Sant Sebastià de Monars, we arrive first to Rocabruna, continue in the direction of Beget, and take the forest track that we will find halfway, on the left (it is not signposted ). The track, without asphalting, reaches the Basses of Monars. From almost the end of this track, on the right, there is a path, also without signaling that descends to the church (about 2 km away).

The extreme rusticity of the work and the existence of a series of elements such as the overflowing arc, the rectangular head, a little irregular; And the steps that separate the ship from the presbytery make it difficult to date. In principle, they seem to be elements of a pre-Roman architecture, but in the style and remains preserved, it seems rather that we are faced with a building that should date between the end of the twelfth century and the beginning of the next and that would respond to a return to a certain technological rusticity.

The first documented reference we find of the site of Monars is found at the foundation of the canonical of Santa Maria de Besalú by Count Bishop Miró Bonfill in 977. The church, on the other hand, is not mentioned until 1064 when a woman, named as Arsendis made a donation of an “alot” situated in Beget, on the path to the church of Sant Feliu de Monars and in favour of the monastery of St. Pere de Camprodon. Five years later, the same woman made a new donation to the monastery where she again mentions this donation. Also, in 1094, it appears in a donation made in favor of Santa Maria de Besalú by Arnau Arnall. The church of Monars, also known as Sant Feliu, is a very simple building, with a single nave covered with a pointed cannon vault.

The vault of the nave possibly corresponds to a reform of the fifteenth century, caused by the partial demolition of the church as a result of earthquakes that shook the area in the third decade of this century. Although there is no mention of Sant Feliu, we know that in the nearby town of Montagut many people died in 1427 as a consequence of an important seismic movement. Consequently, it would come as no surprise if the Sant Feliu building would also have been affected.
To the east, the church has a quadrangular apse covered with a barrel vault. The access door, with a lintel and smooth tympanum, opens, as is traditional, on the south side. To the east there is a small double-sized window of Romanesque style and, above it, there is a double bell tower in a large belfry.