Get Out Of Town -- Montserrat

Our goal on the trip is to get out of town once a week.  Not overnight -- just day trips from Barcelona.  Montserrat was a natural first choice for an out of town trip.  It's only an hour (31 miles) from Barcelona.

After mulling it over, I hired a private tour guide to drive us there and show us around.  We thought it would be better than being two in a group of 50 on a bus.  Our guide Anna did a great job.  Her English is accented but quite clear.  Our driver for the day, Erik, was a stoic sort who did not have much to say, even though his English appeared to be quite good.

Monserrat is aptly named.  It looks like an upside down serrated saw or knife.  It is an amazing sight, rising 4,055 feet above sea level.  It is six miles long and covers 17 square miles.  

The monastery was founded in 1025.  The religious history of the mountain started 880 with this:

When a small group of shepherd children saw a bright light descending from the sky in the Montserrat mountains. In the same moment, the children heard angels singing, and the music filled their hearts with a radiant joy.

For the whole month following the first visitation the parents were also witnessing to the same heavenly experiences and were left with only one conclusion. The visions were a sign from God.Overwhelmed by the experience the children ran home to recall the experience to their parents frantically. The parents were sceptical but knew their children were trustworthy and honest, and so they went to where the children had experienced the visions to see if they could see what all the fuss was about.

A local vicar was brought to the scene and witnessed the same experiences as the children and parents. The visions occurred in the same location in a cave on Montserrat mountain. When this cave was explored by the religious elders of the community, they found an image of the Virgin Mary. And from that moment on the cave became a holy sanctuary for religious pilgrims. 

That's from a Barcelona tourism website.

From the Valley.  The monastery is up there, but it's a long way off.  This was our first stop, and it was relatively cool weather.  We were quite surprised to get up the mountain and find a temperature inversion.

This gives you, dear reader, the first hint of how spectacular the setting is.  Along with the black Madonna (and the mountains), this Benedictine Abbey is famous for the children's choir.  There is a publishing house, where they brought Spain's first printing press from Germany in 1499.  Also, there is an art museum.

My dramatic picture of the fog whispering along the nearby mountains gives a sense of the majesty of location.  By the middle of our visit, the fog had burned off.  It is as though the hand of God were touching the mountains. 

Okay, it's so amazing I had to show two similar pictures.  I would suggest clicking on each to see the pictures nearly full screen.

Now, back to the mountains!  I'm only going to show you some of the many photos I took.

I wish these types of tall Cypress trees could grow at home in Alexandria.  They are stunningly beautiful.  There is definitely a timeless feeling to them -- I'm always in awe of them.

First built in the 16th Century, Napoleon and his troops trashed the Basilica in the early 1800s, and it was rebuilt in 1811.  Then it was trashed again during the Spanish Civil War, and rebuilt once again after that between 1942 and 1968.

While only the presence here is old, the Basilica is still worth a visit.

The coat of arms of Monserrat.  Note

the little mountain tops at the bottom

of it.

St. George, the patron saint of

England AND Catalonia. This was

done by the great Josep Subirachs,

who has done many sculptures at

Sagrada Familia.

The church's way cross, with the

mountains in the background.

The cloisters, with four of the most

important trees to man -- palm, cypress,

olive, and laurel trees.

The stunning facade of the church.

Jesus and the Twelve Apostles.

 If I take a picture of a rose window,

it is going to show up on the blog.

So we queued up in a long line.  After not moving for 20 minutes, suddenly the line moved, and we went up an incredibly decorate staircase, up another, through an alabaster portal, and then, eventually, past the Black Madonna on our right.  On our left was a view down over the entire Church, which is how I was able to take a straight on picture of the rose window at the other end.  

It is really quite a sight.

A random sculpture.

The tile work is amazing.

A modern work of Jesus in a chapel.

Another recent work.  When you

walk across the chapel from side

to side, the eyes of Jesus follow you.

Jesus is watching.

Here we are in the courtyard in a picture taken by

our guide Anna.  The wire sculpture of the head

behind us is also named "Anna."  The work was

done in 2018 by Jaume Plensa.

Anna took two angled pictures of us.

They turned out to be pretty cool.

I love this sculpture.  The block at the 

bottom represents dirt, and goes up

to God.  Blocks include fire, animals,

plants, man, sky, angels, and God.

A view with the fog gone.  The ribbon on the

left is the river, and the right is the road. 

And, one last picture of us.