La Creu Blanca (The White Cross) Verified listing

La Creu Blanca (The White Cross), just over 2 km from Pau, was an important livestock entrance to the Sierra de Rodes. It is believed to have been built in the 15th century and is the only evidence of a monumental cross on the former lands of the Sant Pere de Rodes monastery that has survived to the present day. The cross announced to visitors that they were entering the land of the mighty Romanesque abbey along one of the most used paths until well into the last century. It likely replaced an older milestone. Other interpretations suggest that it may have been erected in commemoration or as part of a simple oratory. It is a Latin cross carved from cut limestone, with remnants of white paint. The cross has straight arms with square ends and an inscription engraved on the upper end of the front that reads “Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeroum" in Gothic letters. A small Greek cross (0.05 m), likely a stonemason's mark, is engraved on the bottom. The cross stands on a small quadrangular moulding on a roughly 2-metre-high cylindrical base.