Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey is a monastery which is situated on a mountain in the Catalonia region of Spain. It is not very far from Barcelona.
I visited this place on October 12, 2017 when Catalonians were fighting for freedom from Spain. I was thinking of some sort of problems, but actually everything was quite and under control. I talked to many people regarding the referendum, but the opinion was divided with majority opting to remain with Spain.
This monastery was founded in the 10th Century, even today there are quite few number of monks live there. This monastery is famous because of the image of the Virgin of Montserrat(the black Virgin).
From Barcelona we can reach the monastery either by road or by rail. We chose the rail on our way up and used road on our way from monastery to Barcelona.
A sample of the train which was used during the 19th Century is kept for tourists to see.
Montserrat is 4055 feet above the valley floor and these days two funicular railways are used to carry passengers from the valley floor to the monastery.
Virgin of Montserrat is Catalonia's favorite Saint and it is placed in the Sanctuary of the Mare de Deu Montserrat which is a Basilica very close to the monastery. this basilica houses the work of art by many famous painters and sculptors . These incluse the works of El Greco, Dali (
I wanted to stay longer in this beautiful place; but I could not as I had to check in my hotel in Barcelona.