Chasing the Black Madonna

Sooner or later everyone finds somewhere they want to go on a vacation that simply is better done on a tour than trying to navigate all of the logistics themselves.  Since Sue has previously been to Barcelona several times she has done almost all of the well-known sights but there has been this one that eluded her……..The Black Madonna and this was the trip where she wanted to do it.

Today with the help of the Barcelona Touring Company, a big old comfortable bus and a guide named Carolos we set off to find the’ Black Madonna’.  But the package for this trip was sold in combination with a first stop to Colonia Guell, neither of us had any idea what this was exactly but wanting to see the ‘Black Madonna’ we accepted it was something we would just have to do first. 

Colonia Guell was only about 40 minutes outside of Barcelona so we were made the trip quickly.  It’s a small community that had built up around a textile factory, up until the 1980’s textile was the major industry in Spain, now China does it for half the price and the industry has all but disappeared in Spain.   This community like many others here in Spain at the time had three center points, the factory, a school and a church.  These three in Colonia Guell were built as the three points of a triangle to create a sense of security.  What makes Colonia Guell unique is that Antoni Guadi was a close friend of Eusebi Guell, the owner of the textile factory and as such designed and built the church there.

 This church was built in the late 1800’s before Segrada Familia.  It is as would by now be expected an unusual and inspiring church.  First it’s nestled at the edge of a small forest, made of natural materials in shades of brown and green and dug down so that it is not towering above its environment   but as to make it ‘blend’ in rather than stand out.   All the standard indicators of Gaudi are present in this church but at a much less refined level.  This is Gaudi the young man, the beginning architect, still inspired and creative, already grounding all things in nature.  Although this church cannot be compared to the magnificence of Segrada Familia it was clearly the draft or first version of what would later become the Segrada Familia.   The magic of the Colonia Guell church was in its intimacy, maybe the one thing missing at Segrada Famila.

Another 40 minute bus ride and we were high in the Pyrenees Mountains at the Montserrat Monastery.  This would be my first visit to an active monastery, one with 9 million tourists a year but an active monastery none the less.  So as this story goes, Napoleon was terrorizing the neighborhood back in 1808 stealing the riches and destroying the treasured structures.  On his way to Montserrat one of the monks took the Madonna from the church and hid her in a nearby cave.  It’s a good thing he did because Napoleon made his way to the church and did in fact destroy it.   While the new bastille was being built hidden inside a building that completely surrounds it to keep it safe in the future, the Madonna started to decay in the damp cave so another monk painted her face and hands, the only parts of her that are not gold, a dark brown color.  I don’t think he meant anything by it, simply the only paint he had on hand.  Thus how she became the ‘Black Madonna’.  However, the Spaniards are very emphatic that she is actually only the ‘dark Madonna and not the Black Madonna’, her common name.

Once the new church was completed, the now ‘Black Madonna’ was returned to her rightful place of honor in the center a little above and behind the alter.   There was a surprising two hour waiting line to see the ‘Black Madonna’ and every minute of those two hours we were wondering if it was going to be worth it or if the joke was going to be on us.  Well, I’m here to tell you she is a thing of beauty and somehow you can see her history in her face as you actually get close enough to her that you can touch a globe she holds in her right hand to ask her to make your needs come true.  She was worth the wait. Now we’ll wait to see if what I asked for comes true……..the real test!!