Montserrat Monastery
The Abadia de Montserrat Monastery is a famous monastery on the outskirts of the Pyrenees Mountains in Barcelona, Spain. It's on the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail and the whole mountain is known as this region’s “holy mountain”. I've never done the trail itself and it takes about forty days to do the entire thing…but you know! I did about a hundred yards of it and felt proud of myself!
It is a beautiful monastery built way, way up high in these unique and very dramatic, jagged cliffs. There are three villages up there as well, and one of the villages is where the monastery sprawls out!
There still are living monks there to this day, in fact their website has a little “how to become a monk” section, so it is still a functioning monastery and not just a tourist destination. There's a funicular that takes you up to the very top of the hill and from there, all these really cool hiking trails! It's just really stunning and very much like its own little city up there, all walled in with the village and restaurants all high up in the mountains. In addition to all the beauty, the monastery is famously known for their altar boy choir, L'Escolania, who perform about twice a day! Overall, it was such a fun and beautiful trek up to the holy mountain of Spain!
