MONSERRAT MONASTERY

High on a mountain, a peak of 4,000+ ft., of unusual geological formations is a basilica, a monastery, a sacred cove, trekking trails, and access to it all. We expected an afternoon here, but it was 8 hours of exploration before we left in the early evening. A "rack railway" brought us from the parking lot halfway up the mountain to the center of the monastery buildings. This is Catalonia's holiest place. First mentioned in texts from the 9th century, it is attended to by the resident Benedictine monks. The monastery was destroyed when the French attacked Catalonia in 1811, but it was rebuilt in 1844.

The cathedral is handsome, beautiful inside and and overlooks the square with distant views through an archway wall.

The only disappointment was the lack of a chance to hear the famous "boy choir". Singing once every day, throughout the year, we were to sad to learn that they were on vacation for a couple weeks. Therefore, then photo below from an Internet search.

To get further up, we took a funicular for a short ride to the beginning of the 3k trail leading to the sacred cove in which visions from centuries ago inspired the faithful to found a monastery here. Santa Cova: a very sacred cave housing a statuary of the virgin.

Also, recently, we had extraordinary visits to important medieval towns. Stop back for more on this explorations.