The Monastery of Montserrat - Benedictine monastery located in the mountains of Montserrat, Catalonia , Spain.
It is a symbol of spiritual and religious center of Catalonia and the Catholic center of pilgrimage from all over the world.
, Montserrat, whose name means jagged mountains , located about 48 km ( 30 miles ) west of Barcelona.
Stone monolith is ideally situated to play an important role in the cultural and spiritual life of Catalonia.
In bazalike is a museum with artworks of many famous painters and sculptors, including works by El Greco , Dali , Picasso and many others.The highest point of Montserrat , San Jeronimo , can only be achieved by a funicular .
The monastery has a developed tourist infrastructure, for all income levels .
The library of the monastery of Montserrat is open only to professionals.It stores handwritten medieval books and editions of monastic printing , which appeared in the XV century. Typography is one of the oldest on the Iberian Peninsula. Library collection includes over 300,000 volumes, 400 of them - hand-written .The most valuable manuscript libraries - a collection of the XIV century Llibre Vermell, containing ten of medieval songs.
The Monastery of Montserrat in Catalonia holds national shrine - a statue of the Virgin with Child on her lap of the XII century , attracting pilgrims to the monastery from all over the world.Because of his dark-colored 95- centimeter statue of black poplar in gold robes called Black Madonna , and the Catalans affectionately styled her La Moreneta ( Cat. Darkie ). Thanks to her faithful care secreted statue survived during the looting of the monastery in 1811.Go to the altar in the throne room all up to pay homage to the patron saint of Catalonia, to touch her hand.
According to legend, the miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary was found the settlers in a cave during the Reconquest .
In honor of the Madonna name Monserratskoy Montserrat (briefly Montse Mons ) in Catalonia, called the girls.This name is , for example, the famous soprano Montserrat Caballe.
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