Day 6 - Montserrat Monestary

We were up early and on the bus for an hour ride to the Monestary.

Montserrat is a multi-peaked rocky range with an elevaton of 1,236 m near Barcelona. This is the home of the Santa Maria de Montserrat Benedictine Monestary. The mountain Montserrat has been of religious significance since pre-christian time. Before Christ a temple to worship Venus was built by the Romans. In the first written mention of 880 AD the adoption of the construction by the first monestary was reported. They were hermit monks who built various hermitages on the Montserrat. The monestary was founded by expanding the hermitage of Santa Maria in 1025

At the beginning of the 19rh century the Abby was twice burned down and sacked by Napoleon' s troops, in 1811 and 1812, and many of its treasures were lost. In 1835 the Abby was closed until restoration in 1844.

In 1880 Montserrat celebrated 1000 years of existence and on Sep 11, 1881, to coincide with the Catalan national day where Pope Leo XIII proclaimed the Virgin of Montserrat patron of Catalonia. This makes this officially the oldest building I have been in at 1137 years.

This is still a functioning monestary with 70 practicing monks. The monestary also houses a boys school for young men to the age of 14. The Escolania, the boys choir, is one of the oldest in Europe and performs during religious ceremonies and communal prayers in the Bacilica.Read more