Beneta de la Força

The Religious Power

Beneta of the Força: She is a nun, one of the Benedictine nuns who are also known by the name “Benetes.” Girona’s thousand-year-old Benedictine monestary, which is still active, is in the valley of Saint Daniel. 

Eclesiastical institutions, economically very powerful, are an essential element for understanding Girona at the beginning of the 19th century. Besides the Cathedral and the many parishes scattered throughtout the city, there were 13 convents. The majority of these, no longer extant today, gave names to different streets and plazas, for example, Santa Clara Street, Saint Francis Avenue, Saint Augustine Plaza, Saint Dominic Plaza or the Staircase of Mercy. 

Consequently, this bighead could have taken the name of various streets, but it has that of the narrow street of Força (meaning strength or force), the street that units the center of the city with the the nucleus of eclesiatical power concentrated around the Cathedral. 

Beneta of the Força is represented as a old woman, with a hooked nose, prominent eyeglasses, and a sad face, like a old lady during Lent. She wears a modest dark blue habit.