Arma Christi
The original gap of access to the stairway from the ground floor was of Valencian Gothic style, shaped like an ogee arch, and had markings of the original rail.
The original gap of access to the stairway from the ground floor was of Valencian Gothic style, shaped like an ogee arch, and had markings of the original rail.
The window gap was built with a segmental diminished arch and it corresponds to the low Gothic style. The gap was walled in a refurbishment by the monks in the 18th century, but it was open at the time it was built.
There is a vault in the ground floor of the stairway in the baroque or neoclassical style of 1759. There is a central fleuron with an angel, as the angels of the corbels of the east cloister, which are from the same period. It may have belonged to another preexisting Gothic vault.
The Arma Christi gateway and stairway or “lions gate” are Pere Compte’s work and the angels are attributed to Damià Forment. They were created at the request of María Enríquez de Luna, Duchess of Gandia, between 1505 and 1510.
Thus, there is an agent holding the coat of arms of the Duchess in the center of two ogee foil arches, supported on two capitals and central column with a spiral striated pole.
The two lions that are located next to the gateway are also holding the coat of arms of the Duchess of Gandia. Three steps are preserved from the original stairway, and they are built in at the point where the stairway reaches the first floor.
There is a rail-enclosed balcony on the gap of the stairway, with quality flamboyant latticework which is from the same period as the flamboyant stairway of the ancient refectory, currently the chapel of the Virgin of Health.
The Arma Christi stairway, built in the 17th century, was of flamboyant origin, but, after being damaged by an earthquake, the monks carried out a very simple reconstruction with fired clay. This stairway leads to the cells on the right and to a chamber, which may have been used to dry food, on the left.
The destruction of this stairway of the monastery may have occurred in the middle of the 18th century, to increase agricultural production, as it hindered the extension of the deposits of the monastery.
