Category Archives: vacation

Montserrat Abbey

I’ll begin today’s tour of the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey with interior views of the basilica:

Montserrat Basilica

Montserrat Basilica

Montserrat Basilica

Moving to the exterior, here is a shot of the abbey taken from the Aeri de Montserrat aerial tramway:

Montserrat Abbey

Make sure you hike a ways above the abbey for photos such as this and the photo at the top:

Montserrat Abbey

You’ll also find in the distance Josep Maria Subirachs’ intriguing sculpture Escala de l’Enteniment (Stairway to Understanding):

Escala de l’Enteniment by Josep Maria Subirachs

At some point you have to descend back to the abbey . . .

Montserrat Abbey

. . . so that you can re-board the tramway for the return to the trainstation:

Aeri de Montserrat aerial tramway

Abbey of Montserrat

MS Prinsendam left the island of Ibiza on April 7 and docked the next morning in Barcelona. I’ve done many blogs on Barcelona, as Ursula and I have been there several times. This time we had a different destination in mind, so with two friends from Canada whom we met on this cruise, we took a train northwest out of the city and headed toward the Catalan Pre-Coastal Range and the small town of Monistrol de Montserrat. Here we disembarked from the train and climbed aboard the Aeri de Montserrat aerial tramway.

Aeri de Montserrat aerial tramway

Aeri de Monsterrat took us high above the town, up the side of Montserrat, a range of jutting peaks (hence the name: “Serrated Mountain”) with the highest reaching 4,055 feet/1,236 meters above sea level. It is here that we reached our destination for the day — Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey.

Abbey of Montserrat

This abbey was 1,000 years old . . . way back in 1888! . . . and it is still home to between 70 and 80 monks. The abbey hasn’t been treated nicely over the years, however. Napoleon’s troops sacked and burned the abbey twice back in the early 19th Century.

Montserrat flowers

The Montserrat Basilica is also located here, and within the basilica is the famous Virgin of Montserrat, also known as the ‘Black Virgin’. The Black Virgin is in the lighted alcove above the altar in the photograph below.

Montserrat Basilica

As impressive as the basilica’s interior may be, the exterior views are what make this a photographer’s destination:

Abbey of Montserrat

Abbey of Montserrat