专辑简介

The Black Madonna

Pilgrimages, miracles and relics constituted important formal elements in medieval religion. They reflected the need for direct contact with the holy. Where miracles were attested or relics found, places of worship were established. In Spain and France, above all, many significant centres of pilgrimage are found and among the most important, after Santiago de Compostela, must be reckoned the monastery of Montserrat, some fifty kilometres to the East of Barcelona. With the miraculous Black Madonna, celebrated in various ways in the songs of the Llibre Vermell and in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and with its unique geographical position, the monastery from the earliest times drew many pilgrims. It is found at a height of 700 metres above sea-level above a gorge, surrounded by jagged rocky peaks. Clearly the place itself offered a strong fascination for people, since it was also the site of an earlier temple to Venus. It was about the year 1025 that the Abbot Oliba established there a Benedictine community, from the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll. In 1409 the monastery became an independent abbey.