text: santa maría de óvila santa maría de óvila is a former cistercian monastery built in spain beginning in 1181 on the tagus river near trillo , guadalajara , about 90 miles ( 140 km ) northeast of madrid . during prosperous times over the next four centuries , construction projects expanded and improved the small monastery . its fortunes declined significantly in the 18th century , and in 1835 it was confiscated by the spanish government and sold to private owners who used its buildings to shelter farm animals . american publisher william randolph hearst bought parts of the monastery in 1931 with the intention of using its stones in the construction of a grand and fanciful castle at wyntoon , california , but after some 10 , 000 stones were removed and shipped , they were abandoned in san francisco for decades . these stones are now in various locations around california : the old church portal has been reassembled at the university of san francisco , and the chapter house is being reassembled by trappist monks at the abbey of new clairvaux in vina , california . other stones are serving as simple decorative elements in golden gate park 's botanical garden . to support the chapter house project , a line of belgian - style beers is being produced by sierra nevada brewing company under the ovila abbey brand . in spain , the new government of the second republic declared the monastery a national monument in june 1931 , but not in time to prevent the mass removal of stones . today , the remnant buildings and walls stand on private farmland . history foundation the monastery of santa maría de óvila was founded in 1175 by a grant of land from king alfonso viii of castile to the cistercian monks of valbuena abbey in valbuena de duero , valladolid province , castile - leon , spain . in this endeavor , the king was following a general strategy of establishing catholic institutions on land he had recently won in battle from the moors of iberia . the cistercian " white monks " ( wearing undyed habits ) first chose a site in ( now called de tajo ) on the tagus , but after a few years , had to relocate to more fertile zone a few miles nearer to trillo , guadalajara , where a flat hilltop by the river commanded a modest view . the construction began in 1181 . the monastic quarters and the church were built over the following three decades . the central cloister was bordered on the north by the church , on the west by a barrel - vaulted great nave , on the east by the sacristy , the priory cell , and the chapter house , and on the south by the kitchen , the pantry and the refectory ( dining hall ) . some of the buildings were given seven - foot - thick ( 2 m ) walls with slit windows , to serve as a refuge in case the moors returned to the area . the church was built in the shape of a latin cross with a nave divided into four sections , and a sanctuary with three square apses . its presbytery had a central square topped by a pentagon . in 1191 , the king confirmed the monastery and its surrounding fields as belonging to the cistercian order . the aged abbot of santa maría de huerta , bishop martín de ( later canonized ) , consecrated the church in september 1213 and died days later . the surrounding area of and trillo along the tagus prospered , giving tithes and gifts of land to the monastery . the cartulary , de óvila is preserved at the university of madrid . the first buildings were completed in the gothic style , including the church . the refectory ( dining hall ) shows an architectural style in transition between earlier romanesque and contemporary gothic . a fine high gothic chapter house was built of best quality hard limestone . the church was rebuilt sometime before 1650 in a late gothic style with a prominent vaulted ceiling . the cloister was rebuilt around 1617 , and is of a simple design with little adornment surrounding a high renaissance arcade . the final phase of building took place around 1650 , with a new doorway for the church , completed in late renaissance and style full of detail . because of its prosperity and the repeated expansion projects , santa maría de óvila exhibited examples of every spanish religious architectural style used from 1200 to 1600 . however , even at its height , óvila remained one of the smallest cistercian monasteries in the region of castile . decline from the 15th century , changes to the areas surrounding santa maría de óvila initiated a slow decline . civil wars depopulated the villages of the upper tagus valley . the monastery 's land holdings passed one by one into the hands of the new regional aristocracy : first the count of , followed by rui gomes da silva , duke of pastrana , and the spanish army . neighbors looted more lands . a fire destroyed part of the monastery during the war of the spanish succession . during the peninsular war , french troops looted the buildings and used them as barracks . the monks were forced to leave in 1820 because of confiscations by a new liberal government , but they returned in 1823 after king ferdinand vii restored conservative institutions . however , the nearby villagers denied support to the monastery despite its protection by the king . the monastery ceased to operate in 1835 : the ecclesiastical confiscations of enforced a law declaring that minor religious holdings housing fewer than 12 residents were to be forfeit to the state ; the monastery had only four monks and one lay brother , who were cast out . vacancy after the confiscations , many of the furnishings and artistic treasures of santa maría de óvila passed to the surrounding parish churches , especially , huet , de tajo and de tajo . other valuables , such as books and historic documents , were stolen and sold . the remaining contents were auctioned , including wine - making equipment and an oxcart . the precious 328 - pages cartulary of the monastery ( spanish : libro de santa maría de óvila ) went to a private owner but was donated in 1925 to the monastery of santa maría la real of . the thick manuscript that hold copies of royal privileges granted to the monastery throughout its history and the , a comprehensive and thorough history of the cistercian abbots and monks who lived in the monastery , was written from march 1729 to february 1730 by father , a cistercian monk of the monastery of valparaíso ( ) . the new owners of santa maría de óvila were well - to - do farmers who cared little for the buildings . for a brief time , the former monastery was used as a hostel , but mainly , the buildings were subjected to hard agricultural use as barns sheltering livestock . the chapter house served as a manure pit . other buildings were used as storage . in the early 20th century small trees were seen to be growing in the dirt packed atop the monastery roofs — the protective roof tiles had long since been taken down and sold . removal to california in 1928 , the spanish state sold the monastery to fernando beloso for a little more than 3 , 100 pesetas , roughly $ 600 to $ 700 at the time . beloso , director of the spanish credit bank in madrid , was the owner of coto de san bernardo in óvila , which included expansive irrigated grain fields and forests surrounding the monastery . arthur byne , an art agent living in madrid , whose biggest client was american newspaper magnate william randolph hearst , was working for hearst to acquire an old monastery in 1930 . in 1925 , byne had bought hearst the monastery of santa maría la real de which was dismantled , crated and shipped to new york where it was stored in a warehouse in the bronx . ( in 1954 it was re - assembled in florida as a tourist attraction , and was subsequently acquired by the episcopal diocese of south florida and called the st. bernard de clairvaux church . ) byne signaled beloso to help him locate one ; beloso invited him to see the old óvila monastery in december 1930 , and byne subsequently sent photographs and sketches to hearst for approval . byne listed specific elements , mostly architectural details , to be removed , such as vault ribs , door frames , window embrasures , columns and capitals . some entire walls of fine facing stones were recommended for removal . he referred to the proposal as " " , possibly to misdirect the spanish authorities who were in charge of protecting historical artifacts . after hearst conveyed his enthusiasm for the project , beloso sold byne the stones for $ 85 , 000 , including the cloister , the chapter house , the refectory and the dormitory for novices . with byne 's commission , hearst was to pay $ 97 , 000 , a price roughly equivalent to $ 1 . 34 million as of 2016 . byne started immediately on the project , organizing men and materials , and beginning the removal of stones . hearst 's main architect julia morgan sent her associate architect walter t. steilberg who arrived on march 9 , 1931 . steilberg recommended that hearst buy the old church portal , which he did , at byne 's price of $ 1 , 500 . under the direction of byne and steilberg , the monastery was carefully labeled as it was dismantled stone by stone . antonio gomez , the local foreman praised by byne and steilberg , numbered the blocks on architectural drawings and painted the number in red on the back of each stone . to move all the stones , byne and steilberg had a road built to the tagus , and a barge attached to a fixed cable was assigned to ferry stones across . an old world war i trench railway was brought in to transport stones from the monastery to the ferry ; its rails could be laid into any of the buildings . men pushed the small rail cars along the narrow gauge tracks ; the stones were then lifted into the ferry by crane , and another crane lifted them out of the ferry into trucks . one of the biggest problems that byne encountered was that spain 's three excelsior factories could not make enough packing material to keep the crate - packing crew supplied . at one point , realizing that the stones were likely to be used in california as external cladding for structural steel walls , steilberg suggested the facing surface of each stone be sliced to a " veneer " of the thickness of 6 inches ( 150 mm ) for easier packing and shipping , but hearst wanted to retain the authenticity of the full - sized stones . byne and steilberg judged certain walls and utility buildings worthless and left them in spain . steilberg returned home at the end of march . byne rushed the project in fear that it might be halted at any time by the authorities — spanish law prohibited the removal of historic artifacts . however , the spanish government was at that time in disarray and did not enforce the law . government officials " simply looked the other way " as trucks hauled 700 - year - old stones through valencia to the docks . when king alfonso xiii abdicated in april 1931 , leaving the government in the control of the second republic , the new officials stopped the project . byne 's lawyer persuaded the minister of labor to allow the work to continue on the grounds that the project employed more than a hundred men and put money into the severely depressed economy . doctor francisco serrano of nearby had for years tried to save the monastery but had failed to interest the government in the expensive preservation proposal . realizing that this was his last chance to document the place as its stones were being removed , he wrote a monograph of its history and included a site plan of the layout of buildings , written from memory . as a result of his efforts , on june 3 , 1931 , santa maría de óvila was listed as a national monument of spain , or bien de interés cultural ( cultural property ) . serrano published his monograph in 1932 . in 1933 , the monastery 's historic cartulary was brought to the university of madrid and published ; the original was archived at the university of oviedo . by the time the dismantling was finished on july 1 , 1931 , some 10 , 000 stones weighing a total of 2 , 200 short tons ( 2 , 000 t ) were shipped on 11 different freighters traveling through the panama canal to san francisco . in 1931 currency , the monastery project had cost hearst about one million dollars . spanish ruins today , a few buildings remain of the original monastery in spain . these include the winery or bodega , now the oldest surviving building on the site . this was built in the 13th century during the reign of henry i of castile , with the upper floor built as a dormitory 27 by 90 feet ( 8 . 2 by 27 . 4 m ) with a long barrel - vaulted ceiling . outside of the bodega , crumbling walls , open yards and part of the gothic roof of the church are visible . the double arches in the walls of the renaissance - era cloister are still standing , but the arched roof is lost . the foundation of the church can be seen . california wyntoon hearst first bought the monastery intending to replace the family retreat at wyntoon , on the bank of the mccloud river near mount shasta in remote northern california . the original building was his mother 's bernard maybeck - designed fantasy chalet which burned down in 1929 . hearst wanted to replace it with a great stone building fitted with towers and turrets — an eccentric castle folly that was to be larger than its predecessor . to prepare for the arrival of the spanish stones , morgan drew up plans with the monastery 's chapter house serving as the castle 's entrance hall , and the large church enclosing a swimming pool . other stones were designated as cladding for walls and rooms on the ground floor . at the port of san francisco , steilberg inspected each shipment of stones , several thousand crates in all . the haslett warehouse , between fisherman 's wharf and the hyde street pier , was used for storage . with groundbreaking set for july 1931 and the last freighter carrying stones still in transit , hearst stopped his grand plan for wyntoon because his fortunes were too far reduced from the great depression . the stones stayed in the warehouse , incurring annual storage fees of $ 15 , 000 in 1930s dollars . golden gate park in 1940 , hearst decided to give the monastery away . the government of francisco franco requested that it be returned to spain , but hearst refused . in august 1941 , herbert , director of the m. h. de young memorial museum , convinced hearst to give the stones to the city of san francisco in exchange for the city 's payment of his $ 25 , 000 storage debt . hearst stipulated the stones be used to construct a group of museum buildings adjoining the de young museum in golden gate park . the city moved the crates from the warehouse to store them outdoors behind the museum and the japanese tea garden , allotting only $ 5 , 000 for trucking and for building rough sheds and protective covers . the museum plan was estimated to cost $ 500 , 000 , but that amount was not available . morgan prepared several layouts for the city to approve , each with a different arrangement of the buildings than in spain . however , in december 1941 , the u.s. was drawn into world war ii and the museum plans were shelved . picking up the project in 1946 , the city paid morgan to construct a scale model of the complex of buildings which was to be the museum of medieval arts , a west coast version of the cloisters in new york . the city was unable to raise money to build the museum , and the stones were damaged in five fires . the first came soon after the crates were set down in golden gate park . morgan said that " piles of burning boxes were pulled over and down by the fire department , many hurled over a hundred and fifty feet . " hearst died in 1951 , and morgan died in 1957 ; neither of them saw anything built with the stones . two fires in 1959 appeared to be arson , and many of the fire - heated stones were weakened or cracked from sudden cooling by water . in 1960 , steilberg was hired to inspect the stones once again ; he used a ball - peen hammer to lightly strike each stone and listen for a solid ringing tone or a dull thud which indicated cracking . he found that a little more than half the stones were sound . in 1965 , the museum society raised $ 40 , 000 to mount the grand portal of the old church . it was installed in the de young museum , the centerpiece of hearst court , the main exhibit hall . the rest of the stones were abandoned by the museum in may 1969 when they announced that there would be no reconstruction . after this , stones were occasionally taken by park workers and used to decorate golden gate park . in 1989 or 1990 , a san francisco city worker dumped an unused granite bollard amid the monastery stones ; the 4 - foot ( 1 . 2 m ) tall bollard was once used as a traffic barrier . some self - styled hindu park users led by performance artist michael bowen , calling himself guru baba kali das , began to worship the phallus - shaped bollard as a lingam ; they wrestled some of the monastery 's stones into a religious circle , calling the circle shiva linga . the city sued to reclaim the area in 1993 , but lost the battle in court . in january 1994 the city arranged to move the traffic bollard to bowen 's garage , serving as his temple . bowen later offered the granite bollard for sale and admitted that the whole episode was a performance piece . in 1999 , some of the stones were used to construct an outdoor reading terrace adjoining the helen crocker russell library of horticulture , part of the arboretum and botanical gardens in golden gate park . other stones were used for various purposes around golden gate park and the japanese tea garden , taken unofficially by park workers as they saw fit . some of these ended up in the park 's aids memorial grove , others on a scent - based flower walkway named garden of fragrance . university of san francisco in 2002 , the old church portal was donated by the de young museum to the university of san francisco ( a jesuit university ) , and in 2008 it was associated with the construction of hall . it serves as the backdrop of the outdoor ovila amphitheater ( 37 . 7757 ° n 122 . 451 ° w ﻿ / 37 . 7757 ; ) , near an older romanesque portal from northern italy . abbey of new clairvaux the abbot - emeritus of the abbey of new clairvaux , , , first saw the stones and pictured them reassembled as a monastery on september 15 , 1955 — his first day in california . he arrived that day in san francisco to serve as a new monk in vina , california , at the monastery of our lady of new clairvaux . the monastery belonged to of the order known as cistercians of the strict observance . the monks farmed and worshiped on land once used by leland stanford to grow wine grapes . davis 's superior met him at the airport and drove him through golden gate park where he stopped to show davis the stones sitting among the weeds . from time to time in subsequent years , davis inspected the stones only to find them in increasingly poor condition . in 1981 , architectural historian margaret burke began working under a grant from the hearst foundation to inventory the remaining stones . she said it was " an excavation project " because of the weeds , blackberry brambles and tree roots growing over them . burke identified about 60 % of the stones belonging to the chapter house , a rectangular building originally spanning 31 by 46 feet ( 9 . 4 by 14 . 0 m ) . she separated the chapter house stones , surrounded them with a fence and began creating templates for rebuilding the arched entrances . during 1980 – 1982 the museum board sought $ 45 million for an expansion project that included $ 3 million for rebuilding the chapter house . meanwhile , davis asked a museum staff member for permission to take several truckloads of stones to vina to be used for architectural decoration . park workers helped him load the most ornate pieces he could find , and they were hauled away . not told of the arrangement , burke discovered that davis had taken some of the chapter house stones , and the museum board insisted these be returned . davis was left with 58 stones from other monastery buildings . in 1983 and 1987 , davis made unsuccessful requests for all of the chapter house stones . after the 1989 loma prieta earthquake , the de young museum was to be rebuilt , and the future of the stones was reconsidered . in september 1993 , museum director harry parker joined with davis to sign an unconditional permanent loan of the chapter house stones to new clairvaux . in 1994 , the city approved the loan with the stipulation that the building be restored accurately and that it be occasionally open to the public . the stones were transported in 20 truckloads to vina . inside an old brick barn built by stanford to make brandy , the stones began to be fitted together , laid flat on burke 's plywood templates . ground was broken in 2003 on the site of an orchard ( 39 . ° n 122 . ° w ﻿ / 39 . ; ) next to the main cloister building . architect patrick cole of , overseeing the rebuilding project , said that there were more than half of the required stones for the chapter house . of the missing stones , more than 90 % were repeating - pattern stones with available templates to carve replacements . oskar kempf and frank helmholz used modern hydraulic lime as mortar rather than making their own as was done in the middle ages . helmholz said of the opportunity offered by the project that it was " something most stonemasons don 't do in all their career . " the strength of the building is twice what it was in spain , with the stones supporting their own weight as designed , augmented by a framework of steel and concrete to hold them together when the california ground shakes . contractor phil sunseri said that the building foundation was earthquake resistant as well ; with a three - foot - thick ( 1 m ) mat of concrete and steel underneath , " the entire building will move as one unit . " when completed , the building will be the largest example of original cistercian gothic architecture in the western hemisphere , and the oldest building in america west of the rocky mountains . nearby sierra nevada brewing company partnered with the monks of new clairvaux to make a series of belgian - style beers under the ovila abbey brand . in late 2010 , the beer producer launched a website to tell about the making of the beer product line and the story of the restoration of the stones . sierra nevada founder ken grossman said he had long been interested in making a line of belgian beers , and the abbey 's project provided a good opportunity . the first product , a , was released in march 2011 , followed in july by a saison and in november by a . sierra nevada has dedicated a percentage of the beer sales to assist in funding the rebuilding project .