Montserrat

Strange, mystical Montserrat, the spiritual heart of Catalonia, looms 40km northwest of Barcelona up the Llobregat river. Its name means ‘serrated mountain’, an apt enough description for this isolated, fantastical, 10km massif of jagged pinnacles rising precipitously over deep gorges, domes and shallow terraces, so different from the surrounding countryside that it seemed as if heaven itself had dropped it there to prove all things are possible.

These bizarre landscapes have attracted religious associations since the early days. St Peter supposedly came here to hide an image of the Virgin carved by St Luke in a cave; in another grotto, the good knight Parsifal discovered the Holy Grail—a legend used by Wagner for his opera. The Grail legends have persisted over the decades, enough to attract Heinrich Himmler up to pay a visit during the war, hoping to pick up some clues (the monastery's abbot refused to see him).