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Just 60 km from Barcelona lies the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat — one of the most sacred sites in Spain. ⛪ It's here that the statue of the Black Madonna, patron saint of Catalonia, is kept.
It's believed that the dark color of the faces of the Virgin Mary and the infant in her arms comes from layers of varnish and centuries of candle smoke. According to legend, the statue was carved in Jerusalem by St. Luke and later brought to Europe by St. Peter. During the Arab invasions, the Benedictine monks hid it away in the rocks, and its trail went cold. In the year 880, shepherds found it in the Santa Cova cave, after the Virgin Mary appeared to them there.
Today the Black Madonna sits in a special altar on the second floor of the basilica, and every day hundreds of people flock there to pay their respects. 🧎♂️ A tip from me: come early, because the line to the altar grows with every bus that pulls in.
