Half Day Trip to Montserrat Monastery from Barcelona
Montserrat, Spain
We booked a Montserrat Monastery Half Day Experience from Barcelona from Viator hosted by Julia Travel: https://www.viator.com/tours/Barcelona/Private-tour-half-day-customized-sightseeing/d562-16168P9?pid=P00068218&mcid=42383&medium=link
Here I would share how did it go!
Upon booking the tour online you will need to decide how you would like to get to the monastery once the bus drops you off at the bottom of Montserrat Mountain. You will have two options: the rack railway or the cable car. The cable car is called the 'Aeri de Montserrat' and the most popular option (that’s what we chose). The cable car from the bottom of Montserrat mountain to Montserrat monastery first started running in 1930 and it travels at a speed of 5 metres per second. The cable car journey lasts exactly five minutes and you will be inside the cable car with approximately 10-20 other people. Below I attached my Youtube video with our experience and it starts with a ride in a cable car that you can watch it and have an understanding of what to expect. I personally loved it, it definitely added a spice to my overall amazing experience at Montserrat!
Montserrat Monastery Half Day Tour
Montserrat is a mountain top monastery situated on top of an unusual rock mountain. The mountain of Montserrat, with the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat, is located approximately 45 km northwest of Barcelona. At 1,236 metres (4,055 ft) above the valley floor, Montserrat is the highest point of the Catalan lowlands. Known to the Romans as Mons Serratus (“Saw-Toothed Mountain”) and to the Catalans as Montsagrat (“Sacred Mountain”), it is famous for its unusual appearance and the Benedictine monastery of Santa María de Montserrat, which houses an ancient wooden statue of the Virgin and Child or Black Madonna.
Our Lady of Montserrat or Black Madonna
Our half day tour lasted approximately 5 hours where half of it counts towards transportation from Barcelona to Montserrat and back. Once in Montserrat we were given 2 hours of free time to explore on our own and there are plenty to see. You can visit the Museum, taste the monastery’s homemade liquor (tickets for tasting were included in our tour) or go for a walk to Saint Miguel's cross for an incredible viewpoint. It’s not possible to cover all these activities within 2 hours of free time but if you planning to then you can choose a full day tour as we didn’t have time to cover it all. After that we had a 45-minute small group guided tour of the basilica, monastery and La Moreneta (Black Madonna) the Catalonia's patron saint, which was the highlight of our visit. The legend says that the benedictine monks found the statue, and they could not move the statue to build their monastery, so they decided to construct it around the statue.
Montserrat is Catalonia's most important religious retreat and a functioning monastery with over 70 monks. The monastery suffered severe damage in 1811 -1812 when Napoleon's army invaded Montserrat looking for gold and many treasures were lost. monastery was burned and destroyed twice and restored by 1844.
The basilica of Montserrat began its construction in the 16th century, and now houses an art museum. It is also the place where la Escolania, one of the oldest Boys’ Choirs in Europe dating back to the 14th century, performs. You can watch the choir boys perform inside the Basilica of Montserrat at performance scheduled at 1pm and 6:45 pm daily and there is no charge to attend their performance. In your free time, you can visit the Montserrat museum, which hosts six permanent art collections and two temporary. You will find pieces from famous artists such as Picasso, Dalí, Caravaggio,
