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You will be picked-up at your hotel or villa and driven to Montserrat on a 4×4 7-seater-luxury car. During the drive, you will watch an explanatory DVD, from which you will learn some of the history of the Monastery and its surroundings. Once in Montserrat, we will show you the main sights and then allow up to 2 hours you to explore the area at your own pace. The Boys Choir presentation starts at 13.00 hours.

You can choose to visit Barcelona Montserrat Monastery and a Vineyard in the same day. To find out about our Combined Tour, click .

Visited by Pope John Paul II in 1982

Brief article

Montserrat is a multi-peaked mountain located near the city of Barcelona, Spain. The mountain is the namesake for the Caribbean island of Montserrat. It is well known as the site of the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat, which hosts the Virgin of Montserrat sanctuary. “Montserrat” literally means “saw (serrated, like the common handsaw) mountain” in Catalan. It describes its peculiar aspect with multitude of rock formations which are visible from a great distance. The mountain is composed of strikingly pink conglomerate, a form of sedimentary rock.

Montserrat is Spain’s first National Park. The Basilica houses a museum with works of art by many prominent painters and sculptors including works by El Greco, Dalí, Picasso and more. The highest summit of Montserrat is called Sant Jeroni (Saint Jerome) and stands at 1,236 meters (4,055 feet) above sea-level. It is accessible by hiking trails which connect from the top entrance to the Sant Joan funicular, the monastery, or the base of the mountain. The Cavall Bernat (1,111 m) is an important rock feature popular with climbers.

The most visited monastery in Barcelona

Around 70 monks live and work in the Monastery. Their work consist of providing a normal course of education to the boys studying and living in the monastery as well as teaching a musical instrument. Their music school is the oldest in Europe and dates back to the 13th Century. Every day at 13.00 hours, they take to the altar two of Montserrat’s most famous songs: Salva and Virolai. Montserrat’s park is the home for more than 1,500 species of plants. It was declared a National Park by the Catalonian Government in 1987. It is one of the most visited sights and definitely a “must-see” place while on holidays.

History

The Spanish Civil War saw the violent suppression of the Abbey of Montserrat. Of the 278 priests and 583 religious men and women killed in Catalonia by Republican forces, 22 were monks of the Abbey of Montserrat.

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During the rule of Francisco Franco, Santa Maria de Montserrat was seen as a sanctuary for scholars, artists, politicians and students. Franco’s men were often waiting for wanted people a few miles down the road. From the 1940s onward, Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey was often seen as a symbol of Catalan nationalism. On 27 April 1947, a Mass was held to celebrate the Enthronement of the Virgin of Montserrat, attended by over 100,000 people. At the Mass, prayers were publicly said in the Catalan language, defying the government’s language policies.

In December 1970, 300 Spanish artists and academics held a sit-in at the Abbey to protest the death sentences meted out to 16 Basque ETA activists in Burgos; in response the police sealed off the monastery. The protesters were eventually removed from the monastery grounds, but their actions helped convince the Francoist government to commute the death sentences.

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