Monestir de Montserrat (Abbaye Santa Maria de Montserrat)

Monistrol de Montserrat

The Benedictine monastery was founded in 1025 by Abbot Oliba on an older hermitage attested since the 9th century. Catalan tradition tells that shepherds discovered the image of the Virgin in 880 after a luminous apparition — an account whose first written trace dates only to 1239, while the statue itself, the Moreneta, is a 12th-century Romanesque work. Regarded as the symbolic starting point of the Camino Catalán to Compostela, Montserrat does not appear as a documented stop on the medieval Camino routes, its role on this path being above all a modern and spiritual one.

Getting there : Free access to the basilica; paid entry to the museum and funiculars

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound