Spanish Monastery Stones

The stones of the twelfth-century Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria de Ovila are scattered across Golden Gate Park, often appearing as weathered limestone arches, fluted pillars, or simple circular garden walls. Originally founded in Spain by King Alfonso the Eighth, the monastery was purchased in nineteen thirty-one by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. He intended to incorporate the structure into a grand estate in Northern California, and he eventually spent over one million dollars to dismantle the buildings and ship them across the ocean on eleven separate freighters.