Date of travel: Jun 16, 2024
Montserrat is a majestic mountain range 60 kms away from Barcelona city and is a must visit destination for every tourist visiting Catalan region of Spain because of its stunning natural beauty, panoramic views, spiritual significance and rich cultural heritage.
One important point to note is that one should not get confused with its namesake island in the Caribbean that is British Overseas Territory of Montserrat .
Montserrat literally means serrated mountain in Catalan.
This multi-peaked awesome mountain range is visible from a long distance and has strikingly pink hue because of sedimentary rock conglomerate. Highest peak of the range is Sant Jeroni (1236 meters).
We had booked a day trip from Barcelona with audio visual guide facility and the car took us through a scenic beautiful route near the main parking area in one hour.
There are multiple ways to reach here about which I will discuss at the end.
Montserrat is famous for the mountain itself, monastery and museum.
Montserrat is famous pilgrimage site and revered by Catalans as it houses Santa Maria de Montserrat, a Benedictine abbey founded in 1025.The abbey houses famous Black Virgin of Montserrat, Our Lady of Montserrat also known as La Moreneta or Black Madona, a 12th century Romanesque sculpture of 95 cms long. She is the patroness saint of Catalonia, known for many miracles and so the place has deep spiritual significance, and La Moreneta is a powerful symbol of Catalan identity and culture.
We started our guided tour of the Basilica which was constructed in early 19 th century and has outstanding interior and gorgeous façade. Dome is impressive and stained glass windows are extremely beautiful.
Next we visited the museum which has impressive collections of archaeology and paintings. We admired surrealistic paintings of Salvador Dali, great works of Picasso,
vibrant colourful pictures of El Greco and Caravaggio’s paintings with emotional intensity.
We purchased some souvenirs from the shop and had a relaxed time having coffee with sandwiches.
Montserrat is famous for its wine whether it is rose, red or white and they use wide varieties of grapes for this purpose. Cava wine is sparkling white wine and is really a superior quality one. We could not resist purchasing few.
Sant Joan Funicular was our next attraction. We purchased the tickets at the station which was situated at the level of Monastery and went up the hill. Funicular has a steep
gradient of 65% which offers breath taking views both ways and is the steepest funicular system in Spain.
Mesmerising, stunning, spectacular whatever superlative I use will be less about the description of the views from the top. There are walking and hiking trails too near the summit and after a fantastic time we took the next funicular down to the monastery level and proceeded towards the car park. On our way we found numerous small outlets selling local goat cheese, cherries, nougats, olives and many other items. We collected some mementos, took lots of pictures of surrounding mountains and then set out for Barcelona. This unique and unforgettable trip was so enjoyable that it is still lingering in our memories.
How to Reach
Usually a day trip available online from all local agents or international ones like Viator or get your guide group. One can take bus tour or private car trip.Many a time Montserrat tour is combined with other trips like Girona, Costa Brava etc.
Alternatively one can reach Montserrat by train. Then two options are there to choose from. Cable car known as Aeri de Montserrat) offers scenic views of the valley and the river. Car starts from Monistrol de Monstserrat rail station from where Montserrat Rack rail also operates which is the second option.
Both cable car and rack rail which is cogwheel system rail take you to monastery level. Bus and car can reach the same level directly but experience of cable car ride and train journey is simply superb.
There are two funiculars – Sant Joan which connects monastery to the chapel at the top of mountain and Santa Cova which connects monastery to the chapel at lower level.
Funiculars take 5/10 minutes to reach these destinations and frequency is 20 minutes.
They offer fantastic view of the surrounding landscape and one must avail of this opportunity.
2 thoughts on “Marvellous Montserrat”
Beautiful pictures and lovely description. Inspired me to visit Montserrat!
Thank you so much for your feedback.