The story of this place
High on the jagged, serrated massif that gives it its name—Montserrat, 'sawn mountain'—a Benedictine monastery has stood since around 1025, drawing pilgrims to La Moreneta, a Romanesque wooden statue of a Black Madonna said to work miracles. Ignatius of Loyola laid down his sword here in 1522 before founding the Jesuits. During the Franco dictatorship, when Catalan language and culture were suppressed, Montserrat became a refuge of Catalan identity, its famous boys' choir, the Escolania, among Europe's oldest. The monks sheltered dissidents and held the Catalan Bible and language sacred through the darkest years of censorship, making the abbey both a spiritual and national beacon.