The Mare de Déu del Mont Sanctuary was built in the 14th century at the request of Bernat, the Abbot of Sant Llorenç de Sous. He had it built in the middle of a mountain, on an old medieval castle. The land belonged to the Bishop of Girona, which provoked the resulting lawsuit between the two clergymen which lasted quite a long time. It is a late Romanesque work, with some parts, such as the apse, hidden by other spaces that were later annexed to it. There are records dating back to 1222 about the Mare de Déu Church. The accommodation was built in the 18th century. In the summers of 1884 and 1885, the Mont was the home to Father Cinto Verdaguer, where he wrote one of his main works: Canigó. The cell in which he lived is still preserved and can be visited. It has spectacular views over Pla de l’Estany, Garrotxa, Empordà and, of course, Canigó.
Work of the famous Olot painter Josep Berga i Boix, dated 1905 and which is part of the Empordà Museum’s Art Collection. It shows us a mountain landscape, where the warm colours stand out portraying the sunlight shining on the hillside. The image of the gentle slopes with the vegetation and trees in the foreground is interesting.
Literary Text
Due to its strange shape, the Mount’s range is comparable to an enormous, bony camel that descends from the Pyrenees towards the gulf of Roses, running downstream with the Fluvià river. The top of the hump is home to the sanctuary, and, at the peak, the Falgars Castle.
The end is so steep and so rocky, that the lawless pilgrims entertained themselves throwing large boulders down it, without thinking that they were throwing them onto the pine forest below, and that, as a rolling stone is out of control and has no set course, they can be and have been the cause of some misfortune on more than one occasion (...).
The view that is revealed, both from the roof of the house and from the milestone, which is at the peak of the mountain range, behind the sanctuary, is wonderful. From here, you can see the whole of the Pyrenees, from Puigmal to the sea, a row of huge mountains that seem to be dominated by the wide and rugged Canigó Mountain.
L’ERMITA DEL MONT (THE HERMITAGE OF THE MOUNT), by Jacint Verdaguer
This text comes from the Literary Atlas of the lands of Girona, coordinated by Narcís Jordi Aragó and Mariàngela Vilallonga and published by Girona Provincial Council in 2003
Location
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Carretera De La Mare De Déu Del Mont, 17734 Albañá, Provincia de Gerona, España
Category
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