Page 68 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 12(2) (2024)

actual wording must have been written at the nounced all future claims over the church of
beginning of the 11th century, a church of San- Santa Maria d’Àneu, including its tithes and
ta Maria, ‘which was formerly called Santa De- first fruits, before Bishop Bernat of Urgell. This
odata,’ is mentioned in the valley of Àneu (Or- indicates that Escó had also partially appropriat-
2
deig Mata 2020, 759–763). This change of title, ed this church (Baraut Obiols 1984, 165–166). In
combined with the archaism of the first dedica- the late 11th and early 12th centuries, Santa Ma-
tion, unknown in the Carolingian period, leads ria d’Àneu also appears as the beneficiary of spe-
us to believe that Santa Maria d’Àneu is an an- cific donations in some wills, such as that of the
cient church, possibly predating the Muslim nobleman Tedball Guerlí, who gave it some es-
conquest. Although this has not been archaeo- tates in Esterri (Baraut Obiols 1986, 29–30) and
logically proven (Cabestany Fort, Matas Blanx- that of Countess Eslonça of Pallars Sobirà, who
art, and Palau Baduell 2005, 192), the mention gave it a man in Unarre (Puig Ferreté 1991, 74).
68 of this church ‘together with all its parishes’ However, none of these documents provide pre-
has led historians to deduce a certain pre-emi- cise information about its historical evolution or
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 12 (2024), številka 2 / volume 12 (2024), number 2
nence of Santa Maria over the rest of the church- juridical nature.
es in the Àneu valley, considering it the center Although the documentation preserved
of its ecclesiastical organization (Adell Gisbert for the Catalan territory became much richer
and Cases Loscos 1993, 242). Some authors have in terms of quality and quantity from the 12th-
even suggested it might have been a monastic 13th century onwards, the church of Santa Ma-
center (Riu Riu 1992, 214), although none of the ria d’Àneu remained on the margins of the most
surviving sources, whether documentary or ar- relevant sources for understanding the church-
chaeological, support that idea (Adell Gisbert es and the ecclesiastical reality of the Late Mid-
and Cases Loscos 1993, 242; Costa-Badia 2019, dle Ages. As Josep M. Palau demonstrated in
358–359). his doctoral thesis, the church of Santa Maria
In the 11th century, during the feudal d’Àneu, like the rest of the parishes in its val-
struggles that affected Catalonia, Santa Maria ley, never appears in the episcopal visits made by
d’Àneu was usurped by Count Artau I of Pal- the bishops of Urgell, at least until the end of the
lars Sobirà. This is known from a preserved doc- 14th century (Palau Baduell 2015, 90–91). This
ument in which his son, Artau II, returned the particularity must be linked to the fact that, at
church of Santa Maria d’Àneu to Urgell Cathe- least from the end of the 12th century, the Àneu
dral in 1086 in exchange for lifting the excom- valley was organized through its own deanery,
munication under which his father had died, al- as evidenced by the election of the priest Arnau
lowing him to be buried in a sacred place (Baraut Gibert as its dean by Bishop Arnau de Preixens
3
Obiols 1984, 145–146). Similarly, shortly after- in 1175 (Baraut Obiols 1990, 229). This one had
ward, in 1088, a man named Martí Escó also re- special privileges like other deaneries in the Pyr-
2 Regarding the long debate about the falseness of this diplo- enean area, as shown in modern period sources.
ma and the actual date of its writing, finally fixed around
the year 1020, see: Benet Clarà 1983, 137–43; Baraut Obi- It was ruled with significant autonomy through
ols 1985, 519–29; Riu Riu 1992, 318–20; Garsaball 1994; its own council, comprised of 24 clerics from the
Pladevall Font 1998, 21–33; Gascón Chopo and Vergés valley, with a dean for life who presided over it
Pons 2017.
3 It seems that the claims and usurpations of the Counts (Moliné 1982). Therefore, this autonomous char-
of Pallars over the church of Santa Maria d’Àneu and the acter, together with the local clergy’s reluctance
episcopal rights over the Àneu valley did not end with the to allow more significant episcopal interference,
agreement of 1088, since, almost a century later, in 1164,
Count Artau III of Pallars Sobirà once again gave the could have considerably limited the bishop’s ca-
church of Santa Maria d’Àneu and all the other churches pacity for action in the Àneu valley and might
in his county to the Bishop of Urgell, undertaking to pre-
serve its security and properties (Baraut Obiols 1990, 108). explain the systematic exclusion of its deanery