To celebrate its 1000th anniversary, the Abbey of Montserrat has added light projections. This is a modern take on a centuries-old tradition.
The Abbey of Montserrat is the spiritual centre of Catalonia. It's located in the Montserrat mountain in Central Catalonia, a unique-looking mountain in the middle of a plain, which makes this holy mountain be seen from many parts of the country.
There's written evidence that a small community of monks has lived there since the year 880, but in 1025 one of the monks started the community that continues nowadays. Thus, this year they're celebrating their 1,000th anniversary.
The legend that explains its foundation is the same as many holy places in Catholicism (Found Virgin Marys). In 880, a group of children found a statue in a cave in the mountain. They warned the bishop, who ordered to take the statue to the nearest important church (Manresa), but the statue was so supernaturally heavy that it was impossible to move it. This was interpreted as meaning that She did not want to be moved, and thus a church was built there for Her. (The statue that is worshipped nowadays dates from the 1100s.)
Montserrat has lived through a lot of history. The Virgin of Montserrat became the patron saint of Catalonia together with Saint George. It has survived the Napoleonic French troops who set fire to the convent, and the repression of the Francoist fascist dictatorship. Montserrat became a symbol of Catalan resistance.
But it has also lived through changes in art history. The hermit chapels, monastery and other spaces of the sanctuary have been built between the Middle Ages and the present. One thing has remained constant: the use of art and new technologies to represent the religious stories. In the Middle Ages, with Gothic architecture, a new technology was developed that quickly became loved as a way to represent the more ethereal aspect of God: stained glass windows, an art of colourful light. Nowadays, we have new ways of using light. I see this new "mapping" as a continuation of this tradition.
What do you think of it?
