What to visit / Near Barcelona / Barcelona / Sant Benet de Bages Monastery
  • Sant Benet de Bages Monastery

Sant Benet de Bages Monastery

The monastery is part of a multidisciplinary complex, Món Sant Benet, located in a unique spot that has evolved for more than 1,000 years and coexists with a former industrial village, a hotel and modern food research centre, which has the aim of improving people's eating habits.

The monastery currently comprises a church and Romanesque-style cloisters and dates from the end of the 12th century. The previous church was destroyed by the Muslims in 1114. The most curious features include the small cloisters with their sixty-four beautifully carved capitals. Over the years, a Gothic-style cellar was added along with new baroque rooms.

In the early 19th century, the monastery came under the ownership of Elisa Carbó, the mother of one of the most important modernista painters in Catalonia, Ramon Casas, who summered there regularly. The refurbishment of the complex by the modernista architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch began at the time.

Nowadays, visitors can enjoy a medieval experience that immerses them in monastery life, with an informative exhibition layout and the technological resources provided by the space: voices, noises, and images of the past that will take them back in time.

The monastery was placed on the list of Cultural Assets of National Interest (BCIN) by the Catalan government in 1931.

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