Waymark
Trek Catalonia — Montserrat, Spain

Montserrat: the Abbey and the Walk to Sant Jeroni

A day on the serrated mountain outside Barcelona — rack railway or cable car to the Benedictine abbey and the Black Madonna, then the funicular and a ridge walk to the summit of Sant Jeroni.

Montserrat: the Abbey and the Walk to Sant Jeroni
Photo: Josep Renalias · CC BY-SA 3.0
Duration
1 day
Distance
7 km
Walking time (est.)
2 h 30 min
Ascent
300 m
Difficulty
Moderate
Best season
April–June and September–October; the ridges are exposed and bake in midsummer

Walking

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    Getting there and back

    Start
    Monistrol de Montserrat
    Finish
    Sant Jeroni summit

    One-way: plan your trip back

    Directions to the start Back from the finish

    Montserrat is a multi-peaked range in the Catalan Pre-Coastal Range, an hour or so from Barcelona, and it looks like nothing else in Spain: a wall of rounded conglomerate fingers standing straight up out of the plain. The name means ‘serrated mountain’, and from a distance you can see exactly why.

    Halfway up its flank sits Santa Maria de Montserrat, a working Benedictine abbey and the spiritual centre of Catalonia. Above it, walking trails thread between the rock towers to the range’s high points. This route does both in one day: the monastery in the morning, the summit of Sant Jeroni — the highest peak, at about 1,236 m — in the afternoon.

    Getting there. Trains run from Barcelona (Plaça d’Espanya) to the foot of the mountain, where you transfer to either the Montserrat Rack Railway from Monistrol de Montserrat or the Aeri cable car from the Aeri station. Both climb to the monastery terrace; combined rail-plus-ascent tickets are sold from Barcelona.

    Good to know:

    Elevation profile

    Highest point
    1187 m Day 1
    Lowest point
    193 m Day 1
    Total descent
    189 m

    Point at the profile, or focus it and use the arrow keys, to see that spot on the map.

    Terrain heights along a straight line between each day’s stops, not along the footpath, so a pass or a switchback the path takes can be missing. Descent and walking times use the same line.

    Elevation data: Terrain Tiles (Mapzen, AWS Open Data)

    Day by day

    DayDistanceAscentDescent (est.)Walking time (est.)
    Day 1 Hardest dayAbbey, funicular and the summit of Sant Jeroni
    Distance7 kmAscent300 mDescent (est.)189 mWalking time (est.)2 h 30 min

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    Day 1

    Abbey, funicular and the summit of Sant Jeroni

    Monistrol de Montserrat → Sant Jeroni summit 7 km 300 m 2 h 30 min
    Navigate this day

    One classic day in four parts: the ride up off the plain, the abbey and its Black Madonna, the funicular to the high shelf, and the ridge walk out to the highest point on the massif.

    Water and food

    Water
    la Font Gran Drinking water 310 m from stop 1
    Drinking water 830 m from stop 1
    Drinking water 50 m from stop 2
    Drinking water 60 m from stop 2
    Font dels Monjos Spring 970 m from stop 4
    Food
    Hostal Restaurant Guilleumes Restaurant 240 m from stop 1
    Cada Día Supermarket 270 m from stop 1
    Restaurant Montserrat Restaurant 390 m from stop 1
    Restaurant Abat Cisneros Restaurant 100 m from stop 2
    Bar de la Plaça Cafe 190 m from stop 2

    Places mapped by volunteers on OpenStreetMap; opening times and taps change, so check before relying on one. © OpenStreetMap contributors

    Segments

    1. Up the mountain by rack railway or cable car
      Up the mountain by rack railway or cable car 0.3 km 0 m Map

      Monistrol de Montserrat → Monastery terrace

      Rack railway or aerial cable car

      Two ways up the escarpment, both spectacular. The Montserrat Rack Railway grinds up from Monistrol de Montserrat to the monastery on a toothed track; the Aeri cable car swings up the cliff face in a few vertiginous minutes from its own station on the valley line. Either takes roughly a quarter of an hour.

      About this place

      The Montserrat Rack Railway is a mountain railway line north-west of Barcelona in Catalonia. The line runs from Monistrol de Montserrat to the mountain-top monastery of Montserrat.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: The STB · CC BY-SA 4.0
    2. Santa Maria de Montserrat and the Black Madonna
      Santa Maria de Montserrat and the Black Madonna 0.5 km 20 m Map

      Monastery terrace → Basilica

      Paved monastery precinct

      The abbey was founded in 1025 and largely rebuilt in the 19th and 20th centuries; a community of around seventy Benedictine monks still lives here. Queue up the side stair of the basilica to reach the enthroned image of the Virgin of Montserrat — La Moreneta, patroness of Catalonia — in her niche above the altar. If your timing is right, the Escolania boys' choir sings in the basilica. Allow about 90 minutes with the museum.

      About this place

      Santa Maria de Montserrat is an abbey of the Order of Saint Benedict located on the mountain of Montserrat in Monistrol de Montserrat, Catalonia, Spain. It is notable for enshrining the image of the Virgin of Montserrat. The monastery was founded in 1025 and rebuilt between the 19th and 20th centuries. With a community of around 70 monks, the abbey remains in use.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0
    3. The Sant Joan funicular
      The Sant Joan funicular 0.5 km 0 m Map

      Monastery → Sant Joan upper station

      Funicular railway

      A short, steep funicular lifts you from beside the monastery to a shelf high on the mountain, where the trails to the viewpoints, the hermitages and the peaks begin. The ride takes only a few minutes and saves a couple of hundred metres of climbing.

      About this place

      The Sant Joan Funicular is a funicular railway at Montserrat, near Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. The line connects the monastery, and the upper terminus of the Montserrat Rack Railway, with sacred sites, walking trails and viewpoints higher up the mountain. With a maximum gradient of 65%, it is the steepest funicular in Spain.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Ad Meskens · CC BY-SA 4.0
    4. The ridge walk to Sant Jeroni
      The ridge walk to Sant Jeroni 5.5 km 280 m Map

      Sant Joan upper station → Sant Jeroni summit

      Waymarked mountain path, rock steps

      Follow the signed path west and north among the conglomerate towers, past hermitage ruins and gaps that open suddenly onto the plain below. The final pull is a flight of steps to the viewing platform on Sant Jeroni, the highest peak of the massif at about 1,236 m, with the whole of central Catalonia — and on a clear day the Pyrenees — laid out around you. Roughly 2–3 hours return.

      About this place

      Sant Jeroni (el Bruc) is a mountain of Catalonia, Spain. It has an elevation of 1,236 metres above sea level.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Steve · CC BY-SA 2.0

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