Monastery of Sant Cugat

Anyone who comes to the Monastery of Sant Cugat usually has an appointment with its cloister, the piece that has made this complex famous and the place where it pays to linger at leisure. Strolling beneath its arcades is the best way to understand why this old abbey remains a benchmark of Catalan heritage.

The monastery stands in the town of Sant Cugat del Vallès, very close to Barcelona, and for centuries was home to a Benedictine community. Its standing was considerable: it became the most important monastery in the entire County of Barcelona, which gives an idea of the religious, cultural and political role it played in medieval Catalonia.

One of the keys to appreciating it properly is its long gestation. Construction stretched from the 9th century to the 14th, so the building is, in a sense, an open book on five centuries of history. Each phase of building left its mark, and exploring the complex lets you sense how it grew and changed in step with the abbey itself.

Its value was officially recognised in 1931, when it was declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest, a distinction that underlines the complex's importance within Catalonia's heritage. For travellers, it is the perfect excuse to leave Barcelona for a few hours and discover one of the country's great monasteries in a peaceful setting, where the stone and the silence of the cloister do the rest.