Montserrat Monastery

The veneration of this Virgin spread all over South America when the monk Bernat Boil accompanied Christopher Columbus to the New World.

It is said that an image of the Virgin of Montserrat appeared in a cave in the mountain. Situated 20 kilometres northwest of Barcelona, the monastery was founded by Abbott Oliba in 1025, although there is evidence that there was a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary on this site in the year 888. The Romanesque church was built in the 12th century and in 1223, the first European School for boy singers. The Virgin of Montserrat was declared the patron saint of Catalonia by Pope Leon XIII. In the year 1500, Saint Ignatius of Loyola travelled here on a pilgrimage.