The construction of modern montserrat: Architecture, politics and ideology

The modern architectural construction of the monastery of Montserrat during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was a long and complex process involving diverse ideological and cultural groups that ran parallel to the modern symbolic reconceptualization of the Catalan-Spanish monasteries and to the modern political construction of Spain and Catalonia. Moreover, it was a process that was shaped by a lack of information on the previously medieval monastery destroyed during the Peninsular War (1807-14). This fact made it necessary to develop a new architectural model for the reconstruction of Montserrat that changed several times throughout the process and that was always tied to the intricate cultural and political negotiation on the symbolism of the monastery and the strange mountain where it is located, as shown by Antoni Gaudí‘s works and others. Finally, a complex architectural model was applied that whilst related to the Benedictine plan combined different revivals and architectures in an attempt to recreate the idealized history of Catalonia in close relation to that of the monastery and to the Catholic religion.