Montserrat Monastery

Montserrat Monastery is usually the first place that is visited by tourists after Barcelona. They come here not only because of spiritual treasures (Black Virgin of Montserrat), but also to see the beautiful nature of the mountains. There are a huge amount of websites regarding monastery in the internet, so there is no shortage of information.

How to reach the monastery by public transport is described later in this article. We arrived with a car, left it on the free parking (N 41° 35.437 E 1° 51.070). To the top we went on a cable car, it is open from 10 am. Of course we can go to the top by car, but it's not so interesting.


Surprisingly, already at 10:30 near the monastery were crowds of people and the number of tourist buses exceeded 20. However, people do not spoil the overall impression, as they are concentrated mainly around the souvenir shops, restaurants and toilets.






We did not miss the opportunity to fly a little and shoot monastery from the air. From this angle you can see the unusual rocks around.




Funicular Sant Joan runs to the top of the mountain, where start a few hiking trails (find here or here information about routes). On a funicular Santa Cova you can descend below the level of the monastery. From there you can walk along the path around the mountain to the cave church of the Virgin Mary.


Getting to Montserrat Monastery

The easiest option is to take the train on the Barcelona train station at the Plaza of Spain. R5 runs every hour, starting from 8:36, travel time is about 1 hour 15 minutes. The train takes you to the foot of the mountain, then you need to continue on a rack train (http://www.cremallerademontserrat.com, from Monistrol de Montserrat stop), or on a cable car (http://www.aeridemontserrat.com, from Aeri Montserrat stop). Therefore, to save money, buy a combined ticket in the machine "train + rack train (cremallera)" or "train + cable car". Keep the ticket until the end of the trip.