The monastery "Monestir de Montserrat", known as the holiest place in the region of Catalonia, was founded in 1025 to commemorate visions of the Virgin Mary. Enlarged in the 11th century and in 1409 it became independent of Rome and prospered until the arrival of Napoleon's troops in 1811, when the French attacked Catalonia in the war of Independence. The monastery "Monestir de Montserrat" was destroyed and all the monks killed. It was then rebuilt in 1844. Today, however, a community of 80 monks lives there and pilgrims come to venerate La Moreneta (The Black Virgin), a 12th -century Romanesque wooden sculpture of Mary with the baby Jesus.
If you get to the monastery's church, the basilica, at 1 pm, you'll get to hear the Escolia (the boy's choir) sing. This is a major treat as they give just five concerts a year outside Monserrat.
Near the Monestir de Montserrat you will find restaurants, a small Hotel and a Campsite. On the way up to the monastery at Montserrat you pass another monastery, "The monastery of Sant Benet at Montserrat" where nuns from the two communities St. Pedro's community of Barcelona and St. Daniel of Gerona joined in 1952 to form the monastery of Sant Benet at Montserrat.

Sagrada Família.
Quite near the center of Barcelona we find the extraordinary "Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Família" (Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family). Sagrada Família was the idea of Josep María Bocabella, a bookseller, a man who in 1866 founded the Asociaciën Espiritual de Devotos de San José (Spiritual Association of Devotees of St. Joseph).
In 1872, Bocabella went to Rome to make an offering to the Holy Father, and on his way back he passed through Loreto, where he observed its beautiful church. It was there that he had the idea of making a temple in Barcelona, Sagrada Família, dedicated to the Holy Family, built as a replica of the church he saw in Loreto, Italy.
In 1877 the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar offered to draw the plans of Sagrada Família for free: a church with three naves, with the crypt oriented according to the orthogonal axes of the block. The work started on March 19: th, 1882, on the festival of St. Joseph.

Gaudí.
Gaudí officially took over the construction of Sagrda Família on March 18: th, 1883, because of some disagreements between Del Villar and the council. The council decided to pass management of the construction to Martorell who proposed the young (31 years old) Gaudí as successor to Del Villar's former post. The council approved and the young architect took over management of the construction. He modified Del Villar's project making more naturalist capitals, and he opened a trench around the crypt to allow light and direct ventilation.

Gaudí left no written plan but he left a model which was built, on which his thought about the form and symbolism of the building was clear. Gaudí was always conscious that he would not be able to finish the work. Gaudí also left some drawings in which the polychrome nature that the Sagrada Família will have can be observed, because he said “that color is life”.
The Holy Family can be considered a Bible in stone, due to the great quantity of catholic symbols which Gaudí chose to mold into the façades of Sagrada Família. In them are found (or will be) from Adam and Eve to the Twelve Apostles, passing through all the episodes of the life of Jesus as well as the symbols of the Old Testament.
It is a monument which declares the catholic creed. But the importance of Gaudí's unfinished building, Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Família, is not only religious; it may be considered the "Book of Gaudí" because it is the clearest explanation of his method of construction.
In this work Gaudí applied all the structural solutions that he had studied and tested more than once in the works which he created throughout his life. Gaudí had learned much by observing nature and its shapes, and by simply trying to imitate them.
A visit to Sagrada Família is recommended, and the building, though it isn’t finished, leaves a lot of memories and a great story to tell your friends at home.