Montserrat Museum

What it is

The sanctuary's museum, in the same square as the basilica. It brings together archaeology of the ancient world, old and modern painting, avant-garde art, sculpture and drawing, with names such as Goya, Picasso, Ramon Casas or Lucas Cranach. It is the best option when it rains or when the mountain is shrouded in fog.

The rooms are beneath the monastery squares and in the foundations of its tower: they were designed by the Modernista architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch between 1928 and 1933, with iron beams in one part and Catalan vaulting in another. Going down to them from the esplanade is already a surprise.

What to see

Modern painting is the largest section and the one most people come to see. It began with the donation of the Josep Sala Ardiz collection in 1982 and gives a very full survey of Catalan art of the late 19th and the 20th century: Ramon Casas, Isidre Nonell, Joaquim Mir, Joaquim Sunyer, Hermen Anglada-Camarasa or Torres-García, and early work by Picasso such as The Old Fisherman.

The old painting comes mostly from the purchases of Abbot Antoni M. Marcet in Rome and Naples between 1913 and 1920: there are Gothic panels, Italian Renaissance and Baroque painting and a Penitent Magdalene by El Greco. The avant-garde section is small but has Dalí, Rouault, Poliakoff, Torres-García and Sean Scully. Until January 2027 a Kandinsky is also on show, Painting with Three Spots, no. 196, on loan from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

The archaeology collection, with pieces from the Near East (Persia, Mesopotamia and Egypt) that Father Bonaventura Ubach began to gather in 1906, is temporarily closed for refurbishment. If that is what brings you, ask before paying. The two temporary exhibition rooms, the Sala Pere Daura and the Espai d'Art Pere Pruna, change throughout the year.

Opening hours and price

It opens every day from 10:00 to 17:45; on 25 December, from 10:00 to 14:00, and on some days marked in its calendar until 18:45. A quarter of an hour before closing the rooms begin to be cleared and no one is let in. Admission costs €12 for adults, €10 for students, pensioners and groups of 20 or more, and €6 for ages 8 to 16. Temporary exhibitions only, €3.50. It is free on 27 April, the feast of the Virgin of Montserrat. The audio guide, in Spanish, Catalan, English, French, German and Russian, costs €2.20 extra.

Before you go in

You cannot enter with rucksacks or bags larger than 30 × 30 cm, or with umbrellas. You can take photos without flash and without a tripod. Dogs do not enter, except assistance dogs, and children must be accompanied by an adult.

The museum is a couple of steps from the basilica and the Escolania. To go up without a car, the rack railway from Monistrol or the Aeri drop you at the sanctuary.