VISITING

Not far from Manresa, and visible from some parts of the town, is the unmistakable formation that is Montserrat. The holiest mountain in Catalunya is a geological anomaly, with rounded limestone peaks that couldn’t be more different from the surrounding countryside if they tried. Prehistoric remains have been found in the area and there have been chapels on the mountain since the end of the ninth century, with the current church being consecrated in 1592. Nowadays Montserrat is renowned for the singing of its boys’ choir (apparently the oldest of its kind in Europe) and recently became the focus of popular literature when it featured in a novel that included the claim that in the Second World War, Himmler visited the abbey in the hope of finding the Holy Grail. Access to the monastery and its surrounding amenities is by car, cable car or funicular.

Water has played an important part throughout the development of Bages, and this is reflected in the Sèquia de Manresa. This canal is now considered one of the main pieces of hydraulic engineering carried out in medieval times. It runs for 26 kilometres but only descends by 10 metres in level, thanks to the design of its 30 aqueducts. Along the canal there is much to do and visit, including an Iberian village (El Cogulló), mines and one of the houses that was formerly occupied by a sequiaire, the person responsible for the upkeep of the canal. Other important buildings in the comarca include the Castell de Cardona, built in the ninth century by Catalan king Wilfred the Hairy, and the Romanesque monastery of Sant Benet de Bages, in Sant Fruitos de Bages, which has recently undergone a significant renovation.

Although the countryside of Bages is best-known for Montserrat, there is more to it than that. The natural park of Sant Llorenç del Munt i l’Obac covers 14,000 hectares of the border between Bages and neighbouring comarca Vallès Occidental, with a mix of vegetation, such as heather, oak and hazelnut trees and rock formations, including monoliths, caves and grottos. Close to the town of Mura, within the confines of the park, is the Casa Museu El Puig de la Balma, a prime example of the houses built into rock by people in the eighth and ninth centuries. And for those who like to see the local wildlife when they visit the countryside, the park is home to over 200 species, including bats, wild boar and weasels.