Montserrat - Monastery

The church, which contains the much revered image of the Virgin of Montserrat, dates from the 16th century, but underwent much renovation and alteration in the 19th and 20th centuries. The facade shows Renaissance forms, but the figures of Christ and the Apostles date only from around 1900.

There are two entrances to the church: the main doorway leads into the nave, while the one on the right gives direct access to the image of the Virgin (one-way traffic). The nave is 68m/223ft long, 21m/69ft wide and 33m/108ft high, and is rather dimly illuminated by the numerous candles lit by worshippers. The furnishings are modern.

The exit from the church is in the north transept. Outside, on the rock face, are large numbers of ex-votos (among them wax models of parts of the body, offered in gratitude for a cure) and votive candles. Here too is the Sacred Spring (Catalan Mistica Font del Aigua de la Vida), with a colored majolica painting of the Virgin.

The road ends at the extensive parking lots, near which is a large outlook terrace, with a modern monument to the Catalan poet and mystic Ramón Llull. The eight stages of the monument, in the form of a spiral, represent the eight stages of awareness (stone, flame, plant, animal, man, heaven, angel, God).

Beyond the Plaza de la Cruz is a spacious square, the Plaza de Santa María (Catalan Plaça de Santa Maria). To the right of the broad central section leading to the church is the entrance to the modern part of the Museum, under the square, which contains works by 19th and 20th century Catalan painters, generally of no more than local importance. The older part of the Museum, to the left of the church, contains a small Egyptological collection, Neolithic material, Roman and Byzantine pottery and jewellery, coins, antique glassware and Jewish cult objects.

Above the high altar is the image (Spanish Santa Imagen, Catalan Santa Imatge) of the Virgin of Montserrat, one of the most revered images in the whole of Spain. It is approached from the transepts by flights of steps with silver mountings. The image, of polychrome wood, dates from the 12th or 13th century. The face and hands are black with age: hence the Catalan name of the image, la Moreneta (moreno = "dark"). The legend is that the image was made by St Luke and brought to Spain by St Peter.