Mare de Déu del Mont
Place of worship · Girona
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This Gothic sanctuary, built between 1311 and 1318 for the abbot of the nearby monastery of Sant Llorenç de Sous, sits atop the Mont summit with panoramic views across ten Catalan counties. Devotion to the Virgin here is recorded as early as 1222. Catalan poet Jacint Verdaguer stayed in 1884 and 1885, writing his epic Canigó in a cell still preserved today.
Legend holds that a shepherd found the image of the Virgin in a crevice on the summit where his cattle grazed, and that monks who tried to carry it down to Sant Llorenç de Sous kept finding their tools missing each morning until they left the image on the mountain for good. Jacint Verdaguer's cell has a window that looks toward Canigó, the mountain at the heart of the epic he was composing there. During that 1884 stay he also wrote the sanctuary's hymn, "Del Mont Verge Maria, Reina de l'Empordà," still sung at services, and he returned the following year to arrange the purchase of an organ for the church. The neighbouring monastery whose abbot built the sanctuary has a harder history of its own: founded around 871, it was wrecked by earthquakes in 1427 and 1428 that brought down its church vault, and restoration of the ruins only began in 1984. Twenty-six towns across Empordà, Garrotxa and Pla de l'Estany still send pilgrims up to the sanctuary each year between May and October.
What you see
A single-nave church with a carved stone west portal stands alone on the bare ridge, its original apse enclosed by the hostel wing built onto the back of it.
Practical
The sanctuary runs its own café, terrace and restaurant, with guest rooms for those staying over.
sanctuarypilgrimageviewpointpoet connection
Church building — a listed cultural asset part.