I enjoyed visiting Barcelona and seeing Gaudi’s impressive Sagrada Familia Cathedral on a cruise to Italy, but didn’t have time to see everything I’d have liked to.
While doing research for Royal Wedding Scoop, I found the Santa Maria Monserrat Abbey, nestled high in a multi-peaked mountain in Catalonia. I decided that would be a good place for the villains to take Princess Patricia’s two sisters to hide them. It’s about thirty miles from Barcelona. According to Wikipedia, “Catalonia declared independence on Friday 27th of October 2017. Since then, it is an unrecognized state and the leaders of the revolution were arrested. Hopefully, things have calmed down in Catalonia since then.
In pictures I found, the view is fantastic when riding cable cars up to the top with all those interesting, sculptured mountain peaks. You can’t drive a car there, but there is a trail you can walk. Or you can take the Rack Railway train. The abbey is an active Benedictine monastery, with many rooms to tour. You can view the Black Madonna, but to visit the museum, you need to buy a ticket.
People ask why the Madonna at Montserrat is black. They attribute the change from a lighter tone, either to exposure to candle smoke or to darkening of the varnish used as a paint sealant. Later, restorers painted the wooden statue black.
Carolyn Rae - Where Suspense and Passion Coexist amidst Danger and Delight 