Catalonia’s spiritual heart is a spectacularly rugged location, Montserrat is many things: a mountain, a shrine, a monastery and a defining symbol of Catalán identity and spirituality. The complex is made up of the monastery, a museum and a lunar landscape that was declared a national park in 1987.
I visited the area in 2010, whilst camping in the Costa Brava / Barcelona; Montserrat is around 30 mins drive from Barcelona or from many resorts in the Costa Brava, and is certainly worth the trip. I wouldn’t consider myself religious, but you can’t help feel a sense of that spirituality touch you.
The legend of La Moreneta
The lofty position of the ninth-century Benedictine monastery makes it an arresting sight, perched high against a bedrock of fluted buttresses. Here the legend surrounding La Moreneta (‘the little dark one’), the venerated smoke-blackened statue of the Virgin, continues to attract thousands of visitors annually. According to legend the statue, supposedly brought to Barcelona by St. Peter in AD 50 and hidden in a cave, was found in this area in AD 880. When it was discovered by shepherds, they tried to take it to the nearby town of Manresa. However, on reaching the site where the monastery now stands, they could get no farther, and a chapel was built in the Virgin’s name. This subsequently developed into the monastery.
Monastic Sights
The Plaça de la Creu is the main entry point to the monastery. It was named after a huge cross designed by the sculptor Joseph Subirachs (born 1927), and bears the question ‘Who is God?’ engraved in various languages. Plaça de Santa María, a long esplanade designed by Puig i Cadafalch (1876-1956), is the huge focal point of the complex and leads you to the threshold of the monastery. Today around 80 Benedictine monks live here. The legendary Virgin is now housed inside the basilica. Built in the 16th century and restored in the 19th century, it is approached through a splendid courtyard. Inside, the statue is enthroned in a silver altarpiece in the ‘holy room’, reached up a staircase above the high altar. Montserrat is also a great place to walk around, with various chapels, 13 hermitages and some great views of the valley below.
And don’t miss Montserrat’s famous boys’ choir, L’Escolania, one of the oldest in Europe.
