Monastery sights in Caribbean Islands

1. Monestir de Montserrat

   • Montserrat
   • Sights › Monastery

   The Monestir de Montserrat was founded in 1025 to commemorate a vision of the Virgin on the mountain. Wrecked by Napoleon’s troops in 1811, then abandoned as a result of anticlerical legislation in the 1830s, it was rebuilt from 1858. Today a community of about 80 monks lives here. Pilgrims come from far and wide to venerate La Moreneta (Black Madonna), a 12th-century Romanesque wooden sculpture of Mary with the infant Jesus that has been Catalonia’s official patron since 1881. A bit like children refusing to believe claims that Santa Claus does not exist, Catalans chose to ignore the discovery in 2002 that their Madonna is not black at all, just deeply tanned by…

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