Montserrat, Barcelona is a mountain located on the outskirts of this great Spanish city that possesses a Benedictine Monastery.

Montserrat was also the rock source for some sections of the famous La Sagrada Familia church that’s been under construction for decades and doesn’t look like finishing soon.

The structural engineers who designed and built the Benedictine Monastery of Montserrat, Barcelona ignored the laws of gravity, creating a place of worship entrenched in the side of the mountain.

This photo is self explantory!

It was built there marking the site of an apparition of the Black Virgin, or La Moreneta.

The La Moreneta statue there is a wooden sculpture of Mary with the baby Jesus, and has been Catalonia’s official ‘patron saint’ since 1881.

However, La Moreneta is also the place where desperate Catalonians leave offerings to somehow please the Black Virgin into making their sometimes miserable lives just a little bit better.

One of my Spanish mates called Robert took me to Montserrat, Barcelona to have a look.

‘Have a look inside, it is really bizarre,’ Roberto commented.

‘What do you mean Roberto?’ I replied with a ‘what the hell?’ tone.

‘Just go inside, you will see what I mean.’

We opened the heavy wooden door revealing a collection of items resembling an enormous garage sale.

There were wedding gowns from spinsters wishing for marriage, motorcycle helmets from passed-on loved ones, prosthetic limbs from amputees wishing their arms or legs to grow back, and family pictures and baby clothes offered in the hope of conceiving children.

Have a look – this is not a joke!

The items were placed there by desperate people who had nowhere else to go after science and society failed them, praying to the Virgin for a change in fortune.

I placed an old boarding pass there and wished that I could be a full time professional traveller.

I’m still waiting.

Other things to do in Europe besides checking out Montserrat, Barcelona – visit the House of Cheese in Florence, and the Mummies of Venzone.