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Built in the 12th century with the popular pink marble from the quarries in Villefranca, the cloister is the earliest known Romanesque cloister in Catalonia that is decorated with sculpture. The themes are surprisingly secular and seem to be chiefly inspired by Asian mythology. The cloister was destroyed and totally plundered in 1789 and afterwards. Many of the columns and capitals went to The Cloisters Museum in New York. But, since 1952, reconstruction efforts have restored almost half of the original capitals.
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Western Europe
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