Hello fellow travelers,
I am bringing you love this time from a piece of often overlooked place, which by my opinion, may be a real jewel of Catalonia, and quite frankly, maybe Spain as a whole. People often visit Barcelona, go sightseeing, shopping, drinking or spend their time there god knows how, not knowing that there is this hidden treasury hiding from them in the plain sight just outside the city limits.
Welcome to Montserrat.
The history of the Benedictine Monastery of Montserrat goes back as far as the 10th century. The legends says that following a recurrence of a divine light accompanied by a beautiful music, a holy statue of Madonna was found in a cave on the mountain. When the bishop and his men wanted to take the statue down, its weight became unbearable and they couldn't move it. As a result, a chapel had been built around it and as the years passed by, it grew and transformed into the abbey we can see today.
You can visit the monastery if you are willing to wait in the queue and see the Black Madonna, a patron of all of Catalonia.
But let's not stay there. Even though the church and the monastery itself are interesting enough, it would be a shame to stay there. Let's climb up to the top of the rocky hills. You can find here several marked hiking trips taking you to many of the mountain tops here, the more difficult Sant Jeromi which is the tallest peak of Catalonia, or maybe just a bit lower mountain of Sant Miguel. The trails are partially on paved roads (especially the one going back down to the Monastery), but be ready for some steep walking and climbing. Some of the rails really aren't for beginners. And don't forget to bring some water, there are not many shopping possibilities at the top :)
Now let's talk some useful facts for a change. If you are arriving here from Barcelona, just go to the Placa d'Espanya railway station, take the R5 train in the direction of Manresa. Now, depending of how you want to get up to the monastery, you will need to get off the train on different stations and also buy different tickets.
There is a combined ticket called TransMontserrat that you can buy from the vending machines. It costs 35.30 EUR and gives you two single tickets to Barcelona Metro to and from the station Espanya, the train trip from Barcelona and back, the two funiculars on top of the mountains - one going from Monastery to the Santa Cova cave and also to the top of the mountain (as described above) to San Joan and then depending on which kind of ticket you chose, either the return trip by the cable car or a return trip by a funicular which both take you from the train to the Monastery and back. Just beware that you must choose this form of transportation in advance and you cannot combine them. The only difference is in the station where you leave your train. If you choose the cable car, get off at the Montserrat Aeri station and if you choose the funicular, leave at Monistrol de Montserrat station. It's the same if you go back.
Just make sure that you return down with some time to spare for you may end up quite some time for the cable car. It only fits 30 people inside.
I hope I hyped you enough and you will enjoy the trip if you ever visit :)
Have a fantastic day
Lex
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