Sant Domènec o Sant Domingo in Balaguer

Sant Domènec o Sant Domingo is an ancient convent located outside the city of Balaguer, on the left bank of the Segre river, in the old garden of Balaguer. The church follows the layout of a single-nave building with lateral chapels between buttresses, resulting in a large single space inside. The nave is capped by a seven-sided polygonal apse with windows in the three central tracts and is covered, like the lateral chapels, with rib vaulting. The nave, which is covered with wood over slightly pointed diaphragm arches, was shortened due to some destruction, which led to the construction of a new facade in 1716.

The most notable feature of the convent is its magnificent cloister, probably built between 1333 and 1350, and which bears a great similarity to the one at Sant Francesc in Mallorca. It is composed of four galleries of slender columns supporting pointed arches with a trilobulated key, with the corbels also hollowed like a trilobulated skylight. The convent of Sant Domènec was erected in the 14th century by the testamentary disposition of Count Ermengol X of Urgell, who assigned a large amount of money for the construction of the church.

Although work seems not to have begun until 1323, a community of Dominican friars resided there from that date until the exclaustration of 1835. From that date, the building acquired various and constant uses. After being converted into a hospital, the Jesuits settled there between 1862 and 1868. Later, it was acquired by the Franciscans in 1881, who have not ceased to occupy it until today.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons