About an hour by train from Barcelona lies Montserrat, a massif of very curiously shaped mountains. If someone took a giant candle and let its wax drip onto the landscape, that would be Montserrat. The mountains are home to Catalunya’s most important abbey and to many great walking paths, making them a perfect place to visit on a day trip from Barcelona.
What you will find in this article:
- Why should you visit Montserrat
- How do you get there?
- What to see and what to do at Montserrat + visiting hours and prices
- Walks/hiking on Montserrat
- Background information (facts and history) on Montserrat
- Montserrat in photos
What is Montserrat and why should you visit it?
Montserrat is a stunning location to go hiking, but it attracts most of its visitors because of the abbey.
You can see the Black Madonna, attend a concert of the boys’ choir, and admire the art at the Museum of Montserrat.
There are various hiking routes from the abbey, going from easy to quite challenging. Lower down you’ll find a description of the most popular one.
How to get to Montserrat from Barcelona?
Getting to Montserrat Monastery is easier than you might think. Here’s how to get to Montserrat from Barcelona:
The main entrance is right at the top of the mountain, easily accessible from the cable car and rack railway stations.
Montserrat Monastery Tickets & Prices
Most of Montserrat is free to visit, including the Basilica itself. You only pay for specific experiences like the museum, access to the Throne of Our Lady, or attending the boys’ choir performance.
Individual Tickets
The Basilica and Museum ticket costs €11 and includes entry to both the Basilica and Museum of Montserrat, plus a downloadable audio guide. If you just want to visit the Basilica alone, that’s €8 with an audio guide included.
Access to the Throne of Our Lady costs €11 and includes entry to the Basilica with an audio guide. This lets you get close to the revered Black Madonna statue.
Want to hear the famous Escolania boys’ choir? A €11 ticket gets you access to their performance in the Basilica, plus an audio guide.
Combination Tickets
The most popular option combines the Throne of Our Lady visit with the Escolania boys’ choir for €15. You’ll see the Black Madonna and catch the choir’s performance, with audio guides included. Remember, the choir performs at 13:00 (one of the singing times of the boys’ choir), so plan your visit to arrive before 9:30.
For a fuller experience, the Mountain Experience ticket includes the Throne of Our Lady, museum access with audio guide, audiovisual exhibition, and entry to the Museum of Montserrat. The chosen time refers to one of the holy image viewing slots.
The €25 ticket adds the Escolania boys’ choir performance to everything above. Your chosen time corresponds to when the boys sing, and you must arrive at the Chapel of Our Lady before 9:30.
Organized Tours from Barcelona
If you prefer a guided experience with transport included, organized tours handle everything for you. A popular six-hour tour starts from €45 and includes roundtrip bus transport from Barcelona, a live guide (English or Spanish), Basilica entry, and free time to explore the monastery and mountain. You’ll get a guided tour of the monastery level, photo stops along the scenic route, and access to the Throne Room and Choir.
Visit Montserrat: the highlights
The convent and the Black Madonna
According to the legend, one night in the middle ages a group of shepherds spotted a bright light descending from heaven and landing somewhere on the mountain.
When they went to explore, they discovered a cave with an image of the Virgin Mary.
The bishop of the nearby city of Manresa was so impressed that he wanted to take the sculpture home with him, however he was unable to because it was extremely heavy.
Instead, he ordered a chapel be built around it to house the sculpture. Since then, the mountain has become a place of pilgrimage for Catholics.
In the 11th century a benedictine convent was built, the Monestir de Montserrat, and from that moment on the mountain became more and more important for the Catalan people.
The sculpture of La Moreneta (Black Madonna) is for many visitors the main reason the climb Montserrat.
The Black Madonna that is housed in the monastery today is a Romanesque sculpture from the 12th century.
The sculpture measures 95 centimeters, and is made of wood and gold. In 1881, on September 11th, the national holiday of Catalonia, pope Leo XIII officially declared the virgin patron of Catalonia.
It’s said that her black face was caused by the smoke of candles in the convent.
The boys’ choir
If you visit the convent, make sure you don’t miss the rehearsal of l’Escolanía. It’s one of the oldest children’s choirs in Europe.
Its existence has been documented as far back as the 14th century. The boys -fifty of them- live in the convent and also go to school there.
Library
Inside the convent there is a library with no less than 300,000 works, about 6,700 newspaper articles, 1,500 manuscripts and hundreds of old folders and maps.
One of the manuscripts is the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat (the Red Book of Montserrat), written between the fourteenth and fifteenth century.
The book is a selection of liturgy, informative and instructive documents about the Honors of Mary in Montserrat. It owes its name to the red velvet ribbon with which it is bound.
The museum of Montserrat
At the beginning of the 20th century, the ‘Biblical Museum of Montserrat’ was opened.
Nowadays it houses over 1,300 objects of archaeological, ethnographic, zoological and botanical interest, as well as pieces by some famous artists.
In 1963, the museum changed name to Museu de Montserrat and paintings from the Renaissance and Baroque from the convent were added to the collection.
Currently, the collection also includes works by the likes of El Greco, Picasso and Salvador Dalí. You can also see a mummy from Ancient Egypt.
Practical information
Opening hours
The Montserrat Monastery welcomes visitors daily, from 7:30 to 20:00, but each attraction has different hours:
| Area | Days | Opening Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Basilica | Daily | 7:00 – 20:00 |
| Throne of Our Lady | Daily | 8:00 – 10:30 & 12:00 – 18:25 |
| Holy Grotto | Daily | 10:30 – 17:00 |
| Tourist Information | Monday – Friday | 10:00 – 17:30 |
| Weekends | 10:00 – 18:30 | |
| Museum of Montserrat | Daily | 10:00 – 17:45 |
| Audiovisual Space | Monday – Friday | 9:00 – 17:30 |
| Weekends | 9:00 – 18:30 | |
| Pastoral Coordination Centre | Daily | 9:30 – 13:30 & 16:00 – 18:00 |
Note: Santa Cecilia (Sean Scully Art Space) is currently closed.
Tip:
Arrive early to enjoy the quiet morning atmosphere at the Basilica and Throne of Our Lady, and plan your visit around the choir performances.
Escolania Boys’ Choir Performances:
The famous boys’ choir performs several times throughout the week except Saturdays. From Monday to Friday, catch them at 13:00, with additional evening performances at 18:45 Monday through Thursday. On Sundays and religious holidays, performances happen at 12:00 and 18:45. Performance times may shift during special religious celebrations or school holidays.
Taking Photos Inside the Monastery
You are allowed to take photos inside the abbey, but you can’t use the flash.
Dress Code and Visitor Conduct
Visitors are expected to be respectful, so avoid talking too loudly and being noisy in general.
There is no strict dress code so you can wear shorts and skirts, but make sure to cover your shoulders.
Restaurants at Montserrat
A visit to Montserrat is often a full day affair, so you may want to have a meal during your visit.
You can bring your lunch with you and have a picnic on the mountain, but there is also a popular restaurant near the convent, Restaurant Abat Cisneros, found on the Plaça del Monestir. The set menu is €27, and features a mix of typical Spanish and Catalan gastronomy.
If you’re only looking for a snack or something to drink, there’s a small supermarket where you can buy certain essentials, local products, and souvenirs.
Personal tips
The weather on Montserrat is different from Barcelona. The temperature is usually a bit lower and much windier.
Make sure you have an extra sweater or jacket with you and even gloves and a scarf in the winter. And don’t forget sunglasses, it’s usually very sunny up there!
You can reach Montserrat with the Cable Car or Cog-Wheel Train. If you want to do both, go up with the cable car and down with the zip train (you’ll have to buy two single tickets).
The price of the cable car is from €10 for a one-way ticket, and from €15 for a return ticket.
Hiking on Montserrat
If you are not especially interested in monasteries and museums, you can visit Montserrat for its nice hiking routes and to get some fresh air in your lungs.
A day trip to Montserrat is a favorite among Catalans.
There are routes for experienced hikers but also more accessible options for families with small children. The views are absolutely spectacular!
A classic and relatively easy walk is the Cim de Sant Jeroni. The starting point is the abbey of Montserrat and this is also where it ends.
The highest point of the route is the holy Hiëronymus, the very top of the mountain Montserrat.
Don’t forget to bring your camera because this is one of the most beautiful views of Catalunya. To the south, you’ll be able to see the Mediterranean and you can also spot the Pyrenees to the north.
From the convent you walk via the Cami Antic through the woods alongside the chapel of Sant Jeroni.
On the way back you can do the Cami Nou, where you will get a closer look at Montserrat’s peculiar rocks.
The walk will take you about three hours, but you can shorten it by taking a train at the end, the Funicular of Sant Joan.
Some interesting facts about Montserrat
- Montserrat literally means “serrated mountain”. The massif draws its name from its peculiar appearance; its many protruding stone peaks look like the teeth of saw. These are the result of the limestone rock eroding in the wind and the rain over the course of millennia.
- Napoleon’s troops destroyed part of the abbey in 1811, and a little over a century later, during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the monks were driven out temporarily.
- In 1925, the monastery of Montserrat was renovated by the modernist architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch. Puig i Cadafalch is also the architect of Casa Amatller, the house next to Gaudí’s Casa Batlló on Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona.
- Under the Franco dictatorship, the abbey served as a secret bastion for the Catalan resistance, strengthening the bond between the Catalan people and Montserrat.
- Montserrat, shortened to Montse, is a very popular name for girls in Catalonia.
- The Caribbean Island of Montserrat was discovered by Cristopher Columbus in 1493 under the Spanish Flag.
- The coordinates of Montserrat Massif are 41.5958° N, 1.8298° E
Map & Address (Location)
Montserrat, Spain
Montserrat, 08691, Barcelona, Spain · Google Maps
