Santa Maria de Montserrat

Shame on us! After almost 4 years in Barcelona, we finally went to one of the top places to see in Catalunya: Montserrat. More specifically to the benedictine abbey Santa Maria de Montserrat.

The monastery is Catalonia’s most important religious retreat and groups of young people from Barcelona and all over Catalonia make overnight hikes at least once in their lives to watch the sunrise from the heights of Montserrat. Virgin of Montserrat (the black virgin), is Catalonia’s favorite saint, and is located in the sanctuary of the Mare de Déu de Montserrat, next to the Benedictine monastery nestling in the towers and crags of the mountain. The Escolania, Montserrat’s Boys’ Choir is one of the oldest in Europe, and performs during religious ceremonies and communal prayers in the basilica. Montserrat, whose name means serrated mountain, is 48 kilometres (approx 30 miles) west of Barcelona, and can be reached by road, train or cable car. We took the train, no Harley available.

We’ll be in France for a couple of days, for a well earned but short rest, so we will be blogging from there. After the beach, of course.

Anyway, click here to check out the English version of the abbey’s website.