Montserrat

Montserrat — "serrated mountain" — is a rock formation 50 km northwest of Barcelona that rises straight out of the Catalan plain in a series of fluted pinnacles. The Benedictine monastery wedged into the cliff face at 720 m has been continuously occupied since the 11th century. It's the spiritual heart of Catalonia and the place pilgrims have come for nearly a thousand years to see La Moreneta — the Black Madonna — a 12th-century wood carving of the Virgin holding a sphere, hands worn smooth by centuries of pilgrims touching them.

The monastery itself is worth an hour: the basilica, the chapel of the Madonna (queue around the back of the church to get within touching distance), and the small but excellent museum (Caravaggio, El Greco, Picasso, and Catalan modernists). The Escolania boys' choir — one of the oldest in Europe, founded in the 14th century — sings a 10-minute Salve Regina at 1 PM most weekdays. It's short, free, and unrepeatable.

But the real reason to come is the mountain. Two cable cars and a funicular leave from the monastery: Sant Joan goes up to the high ridges (3 km of well-marked walking paths along the spine of the massif), Santa Cova drops to a chapel on the cliff face below. The views — looking back over the Catalan plain to the Mediterranean — are extraordinary. On a clear day you can see Mallorca.

Get there by train (R5 from Plaça d'Espanya, then the cremallera rack railway or the Aeri cable car) — about 90 minutes door to door. Go on a weekday; weekend crowds are heavy in summer. Bring water, the food on top is overpriced.