Camí de la Santa Cova

From the monastery a paved path drops along the cliff face towards the cave where, according to the legend, the Virgin of Montserrat was found. It takes about twenty-five minutes on foot each way, or you can take the short Santa Cova funicular down and walk back up.

What makes it a photographic walk rather than a hike is the Rosari Monumental: fifteen sculptural monuments bolted to the rock between 1896 and 1916 by the leading Catalan artists of the day, one of them worked on by Gaudí. Bronze figures against raw conglomerate, with the valley dropping away on the open side.

The path faces roughly east and south-east, which means the morning gets clean, even light on the sculptures while the abbey above is still in shadow. By mid-afternoon the wall behind goes dark and the contrast becomes hard to hold.

It is a genuine cliff path, narrow in places with a low wall and a long drop, and the surface is uneven stone. Flat shoes for the walk, and keep small children on the inside.