These stones are the remains of the disassembled ruin of El Monasterio de Santa Maria de Avila, begun by monks of the Cistercian Order in the twelfth century on the banks of the Tagus River eighty miles northeast of Madrid, Spain. The ruin was not a complete structure when it was shipped here. It had been de-constructed for a hundred years and was in use as a partially constructed stable at the time of its purchase. Part of the ruin has been reconstructed within the deYoung Memorial Museum (currently closed). The balance of the so called "Forgotton Works" have been re-purposed for the construction of the Terrace Garden, adjacent to the Library of Horticulture in Strybing Arboretum. The area near the Tea Garden where the stones rested for so many years, has since been cleared.

---

How it was at "Forgotton Works": Arthur Byne, an American authority on Spanish architecture, bought the stones in 1930 and sold them to William Randolph Hearst. The demolition job took eight months and included building a 100-yard inclined narrow-gauge railway to the Tagus river. They then spent ten years in a Haslett waterfront warehouse. The Great Depression of the thirties changed Hearst's plan to reconstruct the building at his summer place on the McCloud River. Instead he sold the entire structure to the city of San Francisco. Since that time, city officials have been unable to decide where to put it and until just recently, was largely abandoned in crates in a clearing near the Japanese Tea Garden.

---