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Monastery

A view over the courtyard of San Juan de los Reyes.

Solemnity, seclusion and sin at San Juan de los Reyes Monastery

Posted on 17 June 202415 August 2024 by The Gothic Dispatch

Matthew Lewis’s novel The Monk is full of gothic obscurity. I travelled to Toledo to get as close as possible to the novel’s setting – as long as you don’t mean geographically.

Greetings from San Juan de los Reyes Monastery, where Franciscan monks lived and studied in solemnity and seclusion. Discover the corridors and chapel of the monastery built for Spanish royalty. Wonder at the possible sins and secrets kept behind the many locked doors. And succeed where the monk Ambrosio and I have failed, in staying on the path of virtue.

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Join me as I pursue the particulars of Gothic art, literature and travel. Expect extraordinary sights, unusual recommendations and plenty of narrow escapes. And experience the restlessness, excess and otherness of the Gothic without the toll on your immortal soul.

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