The King and Queen of Spain visited the Montserrat monastery on Monday to celebrate its millennium anniversary, the day Abbot Oliba, the monastery’s founder, was recognised.
This was the first time in almost 50 years that the King had visited this iconic mountain. The monarch’s arrival has mobilised dozens of independence supporters led by the National Assembly of Catalonia (ANC), who have been gathering at the entrance to the monastery since early morning shouting “Down with the Bourbons.” Felipe VI will close the conference “Benedictine Values, a Contribution to Peace,” which is being held as part of the millennium celebrations.
The conference was also be attended by the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa. Representatives of the economic and business fabric of the entire country also presented at the closed event. The presence of the monarch, who has stepped up his activities in Catalonia in recent years following the independence crisis, in a space linked to historical Catalanism, reinforces the idea of a “new normality” that Illa has been promoting since he took office at the Generalitat last year.
The president took part in the monastery events at noon and also accompanied Felipe VI during his visit to Badia del Valle on Monday afternoon to mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of the housing complex that provided accommodation for people arriving in Catalonia from all over Spain.
The ANC organised three marches (from Collbato, Coll de Can Massana and Monistrol de Montserrat to the monastery) in protest against the king’s visit. Two large banners were displayed on the mountains surrounding the abbey, visible from the entrance to the monastery. The president of the organisation, Lluís Llach, criticised this morning the invitation of the abbot of Montserrat to the monarch to attend the conference.
“We do not want any monarchy, let alone one that is the direct heir to Franco’s regime and its fascism,” he said before the start of one of the marches. Llah noted that “the symbolic significance of the Montserrat Abbey” for Catalonia is enduring, despite, in his words, the mistake made by Abbot Manel Gach in inviting the king.
Last year, the Montserrat monastery received a gold medal from parliament for its millennium, and Gach gave a speech with a strong Catalan accent: “We are tied to the land because of our social and political sensibilities, especially when it comes to defending democracy, understood as the freedom of the people to choose the government and future they want,” he said at the time.
Fourteen years have passed since Felipe VI visited Montserrat. At the time, while still Prince of Asturias, he opened an exhibition by the young Asturian artist Hugo Fontela, a friend of the then Princess Letizia. In 1990, he also visited the mountain on a private visit; and since the visit of the young King Juan Carlos I in 1976, no monarch had visited Montserrat.
