The Mountain of Montserrat has such amazing features that it has become one of the symbols of Catalonia. Although in the lyrical hymn of the Virolai it is stated that: «With a golden saw, the angels sawed those hills …», the scientific explanation on the genesis of the Montserrat massif is quite different, and, in the end , is responsible for the amazing modeling of the Sierra to atmospheric agents.

First of all, it is necessary to speak of a great marine gulf of not very deep waters, existing about 50 million years ago, located where the Catalan Central Depression is now, and to which impetuous rivers from the slopes of a defunct Catalan-Balearic massif, which provided large masses of pebbles. The pebbles were mixed with more pasty materials and formed a mass that, when this Catalan-Balearic massif disappeared and the lands surrounding the great gulf rolled in the middle of geological cataclysms, the relief of Montserrat was emerging from the bottom of the sea with a great abruptness of forms – let’s say, ten million years ago – and their reliefs were at the mercy of winds, rains and frosts until they became these spectacular scenery that we now admire. That would help, of course.

On the other hand, the fact that these puddings are much more resistant to erosion than neighboring materials (clays, sandstones, shales …) also justifies, with tectonic movements, the unique reliefs of the mountain. The summit of Sant Jeroni (1,236 m) offers an extraordinary panorama from the Pyrenees to the sea (even on days of exceptional visibility you can see Mallorca) and, separated from it by the Coll de Migdia, the Echoes, with 1,220 m. In fact, this Midi pass, in the center of which rises the pointed Talaia, divides the mountain range into two almost equal parts: the eastern, with the area of ​​Santa Magdalena and the mountains of Santa Maria, the area of ​​Sant Salvador and the Flutes, which includes, at first, the popular monolith of Cavall Bernat; the other, the western, the area of ​​the Echoes, the Enchanted Friars and the filigree area of ​​the Needles, which includes the characteristic Port pass. Despite its obvious geographical unity and its unique geological and geomorphological characteristics, the Montserrat massif belongs to the Catalan Prelitoral Range, which stretches between the Central and Prelitoral depressions of Catalonia.

.*ABADIA?