Less than an hour from Barcelona, Montserrat is one of Spain’s most important pilgrimage sites, inspiring kings, popes and commoners alike to don the goat’s hair underwear and traipse up the mountain to seek the blessing of the Black Virgin (‘La Moreneta’). The monastery—with its still-active Benedictine order of 80 monks—is worth a visit in and of itself, with its cable car rides, walking trails and an impressive art museum. But what about the rest of this rocky range? With underground caves at the pretty village of Collbató and beauty spots on every side of the mountain, as well as several excellent rural eateries, there are numerous reasons to embark on a day trip to Montserrat besides the monastery.
Santa Cecília de Montserrat
With its humble bell tower, petit, rounded apses and blind window arches, the Romanesque chapel of Santa Cecília gives us a good idea what the original Montserrat abbey might have looked like a thousand years ago. If you come to Santa Cecília on a weekend morning, you can visit the interior, which features a permanent exhibition of Irish artist Sean Scully’s work. There’s also a lovely walk through the arboretum in the fields below the church to a small pier over the edge of the mountain with fetching views towards the Pyrenees.
Montserrat’s rock formations
From the arboretum at Santa Cecília you can also quietly enjoy views of Montserrat’s distinctive rock formations, without the crowds of tourists that swarm around the monastery. Montserrat’s famous ‘finger’ rocks—geological curiosities that have inspired many Catalan artists and poets, including Gaudí himself—are essentially turrets of dried mud and sand that were once at the bottom of a lake and were thrust up into the air when the Balearic continent was submerged into the sea at the end of the Mesozoic Era. The lake was flushed out and the sediment on its bed was pushed towards the heavens, where, exposed to the elements, it slowly eroded over many millennia. As water flowed down through the mountain, it caused the dried sediment to wrinkle and fall away, leaving the inimitable crags we see today.
Collbató: Saltpeter Caves
To really feel at one with the mountain, you can gain access to its interior via the ancient village of Collbató, perched on meadows to the south of the range. A short walk from the La Salut hermitage is a portal into the mountain itself, with a trail some 500 metres in length leading through a landscape of spectacular stalactites and stalagmites. There are morning and afternoon tours on weekends for €7.50 per person.
Lunch at Masia Restaurant Can Font
A bumpy drive down the northern side of the mountain brings you to the meadows of Marganell, where this medieval masía awaits. A stone’s throw from the abandoned 11th-century hermitage of Sant Esteve, with a lovely panorama of the northern aspect of Montserrat, the farmhouse is full of atmospheric nooks and serves delicious local produce, including a highly recommended paella menu for just over €27 euros per person.