Mare de Déu de Montsant

Priorat Mountain Sanctuary (Albara - La Morera de Montsant, Tarragona)

More than a thousand metres away, in the spectacular Montsant saw, the highest hermitage of the massif guards the Mare de Déu de Montsant, a regional devotion to which four Priorat villages rise in Romeria on August 17.

Origin and history

The hermitage of the Mare de Déu de Montsant has its origin in erectic foundations of the 12th century, in the context of the erectic life of the Montsant saw. It is the tallest hermitage of the massif, about 1.025 meters above the Branc dels Pèlags; the current building was built in 1450. In the Middle Ages he enjoyed great devotion from the neighbouring peoples, with romanies and processions of begging for rain.

After the deamortization of the Cartuja de Escaladei (1835) was abandoned as a place of worship, and the Gothic image moved to Albara; it recovered for veneration in 1909, although the original image was destroyed in 1936. A legend tells that an ox kneeled in front of an oak where the image was found, returning to the place every time they took her to Scala Dei. Today, restored, he congregates the rosemary of August 17, the third day of the major feast of Albarca, with faithful of four villages of the Priorat.

Main canonical patronage and canonical coronation: not recorded in the sources.