El Monestir, #1, Montserrat, Catalunya, 2024
Montserrat = serrated, or jagged, mountains.
Montserrat’s 1,000 year celebration coming up in 2025
Ten centuries have passed since the first monks came to this unusual place from the nearby town of Ripoll. Ten centuries!
This is the spiritual heart of the Catalan people. Thousands of tourists and pilgrams visit daily, with the church itself, the Black Madonna (“la Moreneta”), the small but very well-endowed museum, and the Boys Choir being some of the biggest attractions. It’s a spectacular place, hanging precariously high above the valley of the Riu Llobregat on the vertical face of a massive, conglomerate, geologic oddity.
Solar Panels to bring in the millennium
It is an interesting juxtaposition to see…. all those centuries of history, huge columns of conglomerate rock, now with these hi-tech splashes of modernity scattered throughout the rooftops. In the image below, you can see the many photovoltaic cells (circled) that have been recently installed to collect solar energy for the Monastery’s electricity needs. Most of it is completely invisible to the casual tourist–unless you climb well above the complex and see it from the hawk’s prespective. [NOTE: One thing you may notice as a tourist is that nearly all local vehicles being used at the Monastery are electric.]
The panels seem to be just one small part of the overall preparations for the celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of the Monastery of Montserrat–a practical effort that springs from a desire to preserve the beauty of the Muntanya de Montserrat for future generations.
El Monestir from above, Montserrat, Catalunya, 2024
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