Day Trip From Barcelona – Santa Maria De Montserrat Abbey
We had a lot of fun in Barcelona – We did many different type of activities in the city itself – you can find the details here.
We had about 5 days to spend in Barcelona – so one day we decided to do a day trip ! After some research we came across Santa Maria De Montserrat Abbey . This monastery was founded in the 10th century and has been in existence for over 1000 years !! It is located on the mountain of Montserrat, in Monistrol de Montserrat. On the mountain is a Basilica which houses Virgin of Montserrat (the black virgin). She is considered to be Catalonia’s favorite saint.
I am not very spiritual – however even I enjoyed the mountain and its surroundings ! It felt very peaceful ! We took the train from Barcelona – it was relatively easy. I found this website to be extremely helpful in planning the trip and for the history of the place etc. If you plan to visit the Montserrat Monastery – please read the Montserrat section on that website !
We bought the ticket – that let us visit both Santa Cova and The Montserrat Mountain in addition to the train to Montserrat and the cable car ride to the middle of the mountain. The Monastery and Basilicais in the middle of the mountain. You should allocate a full day to enjoy the entire experience. There is sufficient activities for the whole day – provided your fit enough to walk / hike.
We took the train from Barcelona , took the cable car and visited the Black Mary first ( to avoid lines ) , and than toured the Monastery, Basilica and the surrounding areas. Than we had lunch ( multiple restaurants available), bought some souvenirs and bought cheese from the farmer’s market and went up to the top of the mountain using a smaller train ride. We hiked around at the top – it was stunningly beautiful and than came back to the middle. Than we took the train down to Santa Cova and visited where the Virgin of Montserrat was originally found ! Once this was done came to the middle of the mountain and took the cable car down to the train back to Barcelona ! There was a charming cafe right by the train station in Montserrat! We had coffee and potatoes there before heading back !
Really enjoyed this day trip !! It was a very unique experience and I highly recommend it ! Shared some photos from that day below !
