Basilica Sanctuary
To visit the shrine of the Virgin of Montserrat, is to enter a place of incredible devotion. As patroness of Catalonia, the Black Madonna is more than an image and a symbol that transcends the purely spiritual. The basilica is beautiful, newly reconstructed, as the original was nearly completely destroyed during the Napoleonic Wars. It consists of a single nave with dark intimate side chapels. Behind the altar "the moreneta" (colloquial name for the Virgin of Montserrat because of its black color) is found. There is a side access, a deep hallway that leads to the sacristy and narrow stairs that lead up to the image of the Virgin, where the faithful and the not so faithful look up, kissing, touching, praying and most to photograph the figure of the Virgin.
