Montserrat Tour: Official Guided Tours of Montserrat Monastery
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This page will provide information regarding the audio guide tour of Montserrat: prices, where to get it from, what information it provides and the purchase options. There is also information and descriptions of all of the group tours that are available at Montserrat (there are five in total) and how to book the tours.
Book tickets for your half day tour to Montserrat from Barcelona with return journey
There are two organized tours that save you the time and trouble of organizing your own trip to Montserrat. They include return journey from Barcelona to Montserrat in an air conditioned bus. You can choose either a half day morning tour or half day afternoon tour.
Morning Tour
Click here to book your tickets online for the Montserrat Morning guided tour leaving from Barcelona
Montserrat 'Open Air Museum' - the Audio Guide
Montserrat do not provide guided tours for groups of less than twenty, and these always have to be booked in advance. However, they do provide a service that they describe as the Open Air Museum. This allows you to rent an audio guide and treat the whole of Montserrat Monastery like one large museum. You can walk between the basilica and the other monastery buildings learning about their history and significance.
To pick up and pay for the audio guide you will need to purchase it from the large information office at Montserrat - the one that sits opposite the Cremallera de Montserrat Rack Railway station. For details of the location of the tourist information office, see our Guide to Information Offices at Montserrat. Along with the guide you will also be provided with an accompanying map and booklet enabling you to find your way around the Monastery.
The audio guide will allow you to walk around the major points of interest at Montserrat, learning about their history and importance. Each sign that accompanies a point of interest at the Monastery will be numbered to coincide with its section on the audio guide.
On the Official Montserrat website they have listed some times of the days that you might want to factor in to your audio tour. These include Mass, choral concerts and Vespers.
The Audio Guide is available in the following languages:
Catalan
Castellano (Spanish)
German
French
English
Price of the 'Open Air Museum' Audio Guide:
Audio guide alone: €6.50
Audio guide and entrance to the Audio visual interactive museum: €12.00
Group Tours at Montserrat
If you wish to take part in a group tour at Montserrat, you will need to ensure that you have a group of at least twenty people (and that they all speak the same language). You will also need to book the tour at least seven days in advance.
Montserrat Artistic Tour: "Subirachs from Line to Emotion" tour
This is a specialist tour where you can learn all about the artist Josep Maria Subirachs. Whose work can be viewed throughout Montserrat Monastery.
During the tour you will visit his works including the monument to Roger Llull, sculptures of Saint Dominic and Saint George and Saint Michael Cross. You will learn all about his career and his spiritual influences.
Subirachs Tour
Duration of tour: 2 hours
Masterpieces of Montserrat Museum: "From Caravaggio to Picasso" tour
This tour takes place in Montserrat Museum and covers the paintings and sculptures over a wide period. It will take you from the ancients paintings up until Modernisme, avantgarde and movements such as cubism.
You will cover some of the museums most famous masterpieces by artists such as Caravaggio, Picasso, Monet, Rusiñol, Dalí and Casas.
Caravaggio to Picasso Tour
Duration of tour: 2 hours
Price per person: €12.00 (children under 14 free)
If you are not part of a large group, it is still possible to do a tour of the museum using an audio guide (different to the one mentioned above). See our Montserrat Museum page for details of the price of the audio guide and where to hire it from.
The Fertile Waxing Moon: "Mesopotamia and Egypt, the first great civilisations" tour
This is another tour that takes place in Montserrat Museum. It will take you through the archaeology collection that is linked to Father Ubach, who spent his life studying the Holy Scriptures. He travelled to the Holy Land and acquired a selection of objects that are now on view in the museum. They are said to illustrate the Bible.
The tour will take you through two areas: archaeological objects that are in the museum and then on to a place called the Biblical Guild (a restricted area that you can only visit if you are part of the tour) where you can see botanical, zoological and ethnological material.
Mesopotamia and Egypt Tour Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes.
Price per person: €8.00 (children under 14 free)
Hermitage Sant Joan and Sant Onofre tour
This is a walking tour (so bring you comfy shoes!) to hermitages that have been discovered in Montserrat's natural park. The meeting point is the large tourist information office in front of the rack railway station. From here you will take a walk around the natural park, where you will be told about the geology, flora and fauna of the area, as well as about the history and spirituality if the hermitages themselves.
Hermitage Sant Joan tour
Duration of tour: 3 hours
Price per person: €10.00 (children under 14 free)
Discover Montserrat: "1000 Years of Spirituality, History and Art" tour
This is the most conclusive of all of the group tours of Montserrat that are available. You will start by walking around the surroundings of the Monastery and learning about its history and artistic heritage.
You will then visit Montserrat Museum and be given a tour of its different areas (for more information on the different areas, see our Guide to Montserrat Museum).
After this, you will be taken to the Audiovisual exhibition where you can learn about the day to day lives of the Monks at the Monastery.
At the end of the tour you will be taken to visit the Montserrat Basilica and to see the famous Black Madonna statue.
1000 Years of Spirituality Tour
Duration of tour: 3 hours
Price per person: €15.00 (children under 14 free)
How to book a group tour at Montserrat
Reservations and Information line (Central de Reservas de Montserrat)
Tel: +34 93 877 7701
E-mail: [email protected]
There are a wide variety of tour options available at Montserrat Monastery. Unfortunately, none of the guided tour options apply if you are not part of a large group. However, the guided audio tour option should make up for this.