The Monks of Montserrat

The second most important religious site in Spain is also a symbol for the Catalan independence movement. Montserrat (serrated mountains) has been visited by pilgrims for over 1,000 years to venerate the Virgin of Montserrat, an iconic statue of the Virgin Mary holding an infant Jesus.

In a fairly flat landscape, the 4,ooo foot spires are quite striking and it is clear why this place has continued to be an important site for religious and cultural reasons. One of our guides retold the story of participating in his scout troop’s annual nightly pilgrimage from Barcelona to the Monastery, a distance of over 30 miles, which they would coomplete under 12 hours, then have to climb at the end. It has an amazing history including being a place of scholarly work, with its first book published in 1499, being sacked and burned by Napolean and during the Spanish civil war, and it still has a famous Boy’s choir. Now it also has to be the top visited site in this region outside of Barcelona.

Siri and her father, Bob, took on the hiking trails with sweeping views while David went with Samara and Josiah on a one-hour horse ride before going up the mountain. It started out at freezing temperatures with fog covering the base of the mountain, which fortunately warmed up a bit by the end of the ride and hikes.

After coming down the winding road and warming up, we have now decided we need to come back and spend a few nights just exploring the numerous trails and avoiding the later rush of other visitors. There are over 16 chapels to visit and you can even stay on a few overnight.

Again, these new adventures have allowed us to share our past ones, like when the whole family did spend the night at the base of Machu Pichu in Aquas Calientes. We have a great photo of the kids playing hide and seek in the ruins, and they enjoy retelling parts of these stories as well.

Our time in Barcelona is slowly coming to a close and this adventure into the clouds helped build a few more family memories.