Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey
The Benedictine Abbey of Santa Maria de Montserrat [ santə məɾi.a də munsərat ] is located on 721 m altitude in the same mountain range, about 40 km north- west of Barcelona. Today there live about 80 monks. The monastery is originally from the 12th century St. Mary's presentation of "Our Lady of Montserrat ", popularly called La Moreneta ( " The Brown " ), revered by many pilgrims. As a major center of Catalan culture Montserrat is also about the Catholic Church out of high symbolic significance.
History
Under the abbot Oliba de Besalu was 1025-1035, the foundations of the convent of Santa Maria de Ripoll, Montserrat and Saint -Martin- du- Canigou.
The late medieval monastery was destroyed in 1811 by Napoleon's troops and then largely replaced. The present monastery was built by Leo XIII. 1881 raised to the papal basilica minor. There is heard daily by 13 clock the Song of Mary Virolai, sung by the Escolania de Montserrat, a boys choir, which has been proven documented since 1307 and is thus one of the oldest in Europe, in the 17th and 18th century saw a period of prosperity and the under other Josep Martí worked as a teacher.
The monastery houses a museum with objects on the archeology of the Holy Land, precious liturgical objects, paintings, among others El Greco, Caravaggio, Luca Giordano and Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, Ramon Casas i Carbó and Salvador Dalí.
The present monastery stands on a narrow terrace 700 m above sea level At the spacious basilica was built from 1559-92 ( L-60/B-30 ). The facade dates from the '60s, the apse of the second half of the 19th century.
Importance
The Black Madonna Our Lady of Montserrat, Mare de Deu de Montserrat, the patron saint of Catalonia and is located in the apse of the monastery of Montserrat.
These is also a library with over 200,000 volumes, including a collection of medieval songs, the " Llibre Vermell de Montserrat ". It contains pieces of spiritual and secular songs, together with notes. The secular songs or famous Catalan pieces this time, have been arrested for the pilgrims. Was completed in the Codex 1399.
Besides the religious significance of the monastery is also a refuge of Catalan nationalism and Catalan culture. Because thanks to the ecclesiastical privileges during the Franco dictatorship was not under the Franco appointed by bishops, the masses were still celebrated in the Forbidden Catalan language in the monastery.
Check-in
The arrival of the pilgrims carried today by bus, cable car, and since 2003, especially with the cog railway Cremallera de Montserrat. The cable car was built by the Leipzig firm of Adolf Bleicherts, the planned Adolf Bleichert & Co. and its conductive engineer Friedrich Gründel in 1930.
Apart from the actual monastery there are numerous hermitages in the surrounding mountains, which can be achieved in well -maintained hiking trails from the monastery. The trails are classified by length and difficulty and make Montserrat for many residents of Barcelona into an interesting recreation area.
Christopher Columbus named on his second voyage an island of the Lesser Antilles to the monastery, today's British colony of Montserrat.
Following the miraculous image of Montserrat is also a common Catalan name at birth (in short: Montse ). Wearing it, for example, the soprano Montserrat Caballé.
Abbots of the mid-19th century
- Miquel Muntadas, 1858-1885
- Josep Deas, 1885-1921
- Antoni M. Marcet, 1921-1946
- Aureli M. Escarré, 1946-1966 Gabriel M. Braso ( Abtkoadjutor 1961-1966, 1966-1976 president of the Congregation of Subiaco)