Spain Holidays

Take a trip from Barcelona to Montserrat and experience extraordinary beauty and peace.

Montserrat - a mountain chain near Barcelona, it is famous for the site of the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat, which hosts the Virgin of Montserrat sanctuary (Basilica) - identified by some as the location of the Holy Grail from the Arthurian myth.

«Montserrat», meaning «jagged (serrated) mountain» in Catalan, presents the peculiar aspect of the rock formation, which is visible from a great distance. The mountain is composed of unusual - pink - conglomerate, a form of sedimentary rock.

The Benedictine Monastery (Abbey), dating from 1025, is a place of pilgrimage for the Catalan nation. The monastery's Basilica houses a statue of the Black Virgin (La Moreneta) - Catalonia's patron virgin.

The world-famous Escolania (Boys' Choir) sings the Salve and the Virolai at 1 AM from Monday to Friday. On Sundays and holidays the Choir sings at conventual mass and sings the Salve and the Virolai at noon.

The Monastery can be reached by road, or by the Aeri de Montserrat cable car, or by the Montserrat Rack Railway. The lower stations of both the rack railway and the cable car can be reached by the FGC (Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya) train from Barcelona's Plaça d'Espanya station.

From the abbey, the Funicular de Sant Joan (funicular railway) goes up to the top of the mountain, where there are various abandoned hovels in the cliff faces that were previously the abodes of reclusive monks. The second funicular railway - the Funicular de Santa Cova descends to a shrine.

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