The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-05-26
MONSERRAT.

Monserrat is one of the many aud per-
haps the most celebrated of the sacred
shrines of Spain 1t lies about twenty
miles northwest of Barcelona, near the
Barcelona and Saragossa Railway. Leav-
ing Barcelona before sunrise, we found
the peasants working in the fields, and
always wearing a red cap, with long
slouched top. The common people work
early and late, but take their siesta from
IL to 2, or later The heat of midday
forbids work, and this circumstance has
fixed the almost universal custom of the
country in regard to labor. The railroad
passes over country made up Of high, bold
hills, sloping to the top, and furrowed and
broken by gulches worn by water courses
in rainy weather, with higher ranges of
mountains in the distance running 10
every direction. These mountains are
often separated by rapid streams, winding
their serpentine way among them and
from the higher mountains in the interior
to the sea. Along these streams the
railroad winds its way, often along high
cliffs and through tunnels Of red rock
Hills, mountains and valleys are filed with
the vine. Not an inch of land is wasted
Even to the tops of the highest hills, and
along the precipitous base of mountains
where vine will grow, there you viii find
terrace well cultivated and tanks for ar
tiicial irrigation. Even the mountain
sides will be blasted out and place walled
up for terrace.
Monserrat is a lofty, jagged mass of
rock, about twenty five miles in circumfer-
ence, rising up from the ordinary level of
the country about four thousand, feet.
The beautiful river Llobregat winds around
its base, furnishing water power for nu-
merous silk and cotton mills.
The name-Monserrat--signi6es the
saw-like character of the mountain peaks
The whole is cleft in sunder by one awful
chasm from east to west, and rising four
thousand feet high along this chasm are
numerous sharp peaks, serrated, smooth, re-
sembling the teeth of saw in the dis
tance; but on nearer approach they tower
above you straight into the clouds, some
resembling the teeth of tiger, some the
tusks of elephants, some sugar loaf
One, called the head Of San Antonio, is
much like the head and face Of man.
One, an immense lofty rock, is like a
sphinx, besides which the Sphinx of
Egypt appears like baby.
We are left by the railway at Ministrat
about three miles from the foot Of the
mountain. A diligence will convey US
from thence to the monastery, about half
way up the mountain, Looking at the
mountain from the east, the top of it looks
like the jaw of an immense alligator, with
the teeth upwards. The sides of the
mountains recede upwards in terraces, like
the pyramids Of Gizeh. OF so much i'm
portanee Is this holy shrine that the gov
ernment have constructed and keep in
order magnificent road, winding up in
zigzag course, like the roads Of Switzer.
land, for two thousand feet to the monas-
terry. Here is the chapel aud the Virgin,
and here we must pass the night in the
cold, bare cells Of dead monks, with a
stone floor, long ranges of gloomy, empty
cells around us, aud the vaults of the de-
parted monks beneath us; we have a
coarse, clean bed, jug Of water and
towel, aud nothing more. "A good.naturs
ed, frouzy looking old monk, the only one
we saw, conducts us to the oaken door,
gives us the long, ancient, rusty key, and,
without light or FIRE in the winter night,
we are left to our thoughts. Wehad been
told during the day that one good old
monk, long since dead, often wandered
among the scenes of his earthly career
after nightfall. This added to the inter-
est Of the occasion when all was dark and
still and We heard the owls hooting from
the shadowy recesses Of the old cloisters.
It was a night Of weird, strange sensa-
tions. Here the great Charles v. had
come on pilgrimage; here also his son,
Philip H. paid his devOtions. Here,
\ 10 the chapel, IOyola, in 1922, after watch.
! Ing all night before the image ofthe vir,