Montserrat, Spain

We decided to take a day trip out of the big city and visit Montserrat, a mountain range west of Barcelona and home to a Benedictine monastery church in perhaps the most beautiful setting you will ever see.

Just outside the church is this statue, made by the same sculptor who made all of the pieces for the Passion Facade of the Sagrada Familia. I love the style.

This place has an interesting history. Way back in 880, the locals claim to have seen light in the mountains and angels singing. These visions and sounds were supposedly coming from a small cave in the mountain. Upon further investigation, religious elders discovered a black Madonna in the cave. They tried to bring it down out of the hills, but it became too heavy for them to carry, so rather than remove the Madonna they built a church in the mountains where the statue resides to this day.

Here is a shot inside the church, which was originally built in the 11th century . The black Madonna is behind the altar. It’s pretty damn small, so you can’t really see it in this photo, but it’s in the bright area in the middle.

I love the design of this organ. It is apparently similar to the organ in the Sagrada Familia, being made by the same person.

This was in one of the side-altars in the nave, and it’s got to be the coolest depiction of the crucifiction I’ve ever seen.

I took this short video so you can see how the eyes follow you….very creepy!

We had some free time on the mountain so we took the fernicular up and then hiked back down.

Some of the best views of Montserrat are from the trail leading back down.

This would have been a great shot we had moved three feet over out of that shadow!

A better view of the monastery and surrounding mountains.

After the Montserrat visit we were taken to a winery (Oller Dl Mas) in the valley below. This winery is housed in a 10th century castle that has been in the same family for 1000 years.

The wines were pretty good. The lunch they served us, not so much. One nice thing is the view looking back towards Montserrat helps explain how it got this name. Montserrat translates to “saw mountain”. This would make a nice rocking chair view!

The next day would be our last in Barcelona and Spain, but we are ready to be home.