Description

Private Tour from Barcelona to Montserrat

Escape Barcelona on a private half-day tour to the must-see of Montserrat Mountain and Monastery. Feast your eyes on the stunning basilica, breathtaking views and remarkable rock formations. Enjoy some Catalan snacks and drinks along the way.

A bit of History

The legend places the discovery of the image of the Virgin of Montserrat around the year 880. Then began the cult of the Moreneta, which materialized in four first hermitages in the ninth century: Santa María, San Acisclo, San Pedro and San Martín. However, the origin of the monastery is uncertain: it is known that, around 1011, a monk from the monastery of Santa María de Ripoll came to the mountain to take charge of the monastery of Santa Cecilia, thus leaving the monastery under the orders of Abbot Oliba de Ripoll. Santa Cecilia did not accept this new situation, so Oliba decided to found the monastery of Santa María in the place where an old hermitage of the same name was located (1025).

The monastery

It soon became a sanctuary; This fact led to an increase in donations and alms received, and allowed a constant growth of both the religious enclosure and the influence in the territory. Between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Romanesque church was built, and from that time comes the carving of the Virgin that is venerated today. At the end of the twelfth century, the abbot regent requested that the community of monks be allowed to be expanded to 12, the minimum required to be considered an abbey. The following century was the beginning of the struggle of Montserrat to achieve its independence from the monastery of Ripoll. This independence did not come until March 10, 1410 and was granted by Pope Benedict XIII. In 1476 the Gothic cloister was built.