Sant Benet de Montserrat

On one of the flanks of the Montserrat massif, on a rocky outcrop overlooking the road to Monistrol, stands the monastery of Sant Benet, home to a community of Benedictine nuns. Those who make their way here, within the municipality of Marganell and not far from the Colònia Puig, will find a place devoted to quiet reflection, where the rocky landscape and the silence are an essential part of the experience.

Beyond its contemplative life, the abbey has a very distinctive hallmark: the ceramics made by the nuns themselves. Vases, tiles decorated with drawings and small sculptures all come from their hands, a craft output that has made the community famous and is one of the best reasons to visit.

Although the building is modern, the community's history goes back a long way. The abbey was canonically established in 1952 through the union of two communities: that of Santa Clara in Barcelona, whose origins possibly date back to the 1230s, and that of Sant Benet in Mataró, founded in 1881. Within these walls, then, seven centuries of monastic tradition live side by side.

The present complex was built in 1954 to a design by the architect Lluís Bonet i Garí, while the church came later, in 1987, the work of Jordi Bonet i Armengol. The building is listed in the Inventory of the Architectural Heritage of Catalonia, a recognition of this 20th-century religious architecture set in one of the region's most iconic locations.