Miami is an immigrant’s city. We all have our own stories about how we got here, why we chose to stay and how we’ve made the city home. Our buildings are no different, and one in particular has quite the story to tell. Smack dab between Miami's Art Deco and contemporary projects and the hundreds of cranes used to build them (will the construction ever end?) is a tenth century Spanish monastery. Plum’s Jonathan Vigliotti takes us inside the 874-year-old building in this edition of Plum Assignment. Here’s a quick timeline to get you situated:
- 1133-1141: The Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux was built in Segovia, Spain and remained occupied by Cistercian monks for almost 700 years
- Mid 1830s: A social revolution swept through Segovia and the cloisters were seized, sold and converted into a granary and stable
- 1920s: William Randolph Hearst bought the building and had the structures dismantled stone by stone, bound with protective hay, packed in some 11,000 wooden crates and shipped to the United States. He soon fell victim to financial problems and was forced to auction off most of his collection
- 1953: The stones (long since unnumbered and disarranged) were purchased by Messrs. W. Edgemon and R. Moss and moved to Miami. It took 19 months and almost $1.5 million dollars to put the Monastery back together – some of the unmatched stones still remain in the back lot
The details: Spanish Monastery, North Miami Beach; 305-945-1461; spanishmonastery.com
Video
Smack dab between Miami's Art Deco and contemporary buildings and the hundreds of cranes used to build them (will the construction ever end?) is a tenth century Spanish monastery. Plum’s Jonathan Vigliotti takes us inside the 874-year-old building in this edition of Plum Assignment.
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