Q: Please can you let me know about disabled access at Montserrat Monastery. My husband uses an electric scooter to get around and I need to know if there are ramps into buildings, disabled toilets etc ?

A: The access to Montserrat, to the mountain and the Monastery with an electric scooter as well as a wheel chair is possible. You can access it by car or by Cremallera, the rack railway, which is adapted for the transport of people with limited mobility. The only transport that is not adapted for disabled access are the cable car and the funicular railways that are at the Monestary itself and take you to other parts of the mountain.There are two funiculars: Sant Joan Funicular railway and Santa Cova Funicular railway. They leave from outside Montserrat Monastery, where you arrive with the Cremallera or Aereo.

When arriving by car, there is a car park at 400 m distance from the Sanctuary. In case the disabled person should not be able to make that distance by wheel chair or scooter, you can ask the persons in charge at Montserrat car park to open the gate and let you drive the car as near as possible to the Sanctuary. There the disabled person can be helped to get out of the car which you will have to drive back to the car park afterwards. Another possibility is to catch a little adapted train which drives you along the site (free of charge). This small train will give you an a view from outside Montserrat monestary. This train starts near the restaurant which is close to the car park. You will arrive near the museum and Sanctuary with it, as well as the commercial zone with the shops.

It is possible to visit the inside of the Monastery, as well as the Museum and the Basilica by electric scooter or wheel chair. The Virgin statue at the shrine in the Monastery can be viewed at a comfortable distance by someone in a wheelchair or a scooter. As there are many people visiting the Sanctuary, it is not possible for a disabled person to be in the line. Therefore you need to do the visit the other way around because there is a platform that allows you to not need to take the stairs up to the shrine. The circuit which everybody follows normally is the arrival at the rack railway or cable car, then moving on to the museum and then on to the Sanctuary. There is one part of the route that has stairs, but there is a road to surround it with a wheelchair or scooter. You will also find adapted toilets, restaurants (Restaurant Abat Cisneros and Restaurant Montserrat) and disabled facilities at the Hotel Abat Cisneros. You can also choose to reserve an apartment at Abat Marcet, they are adapted as well for the disabled traveller.

It is also possible to make group reservations for disabled people by contacting the Abat Cisneros in advance of your trip.

For information regarding how to arrive to Montserrat, trips to the nature park, accommodation, timetables and other useful information, please refer to the following links below:

Guide To Montserrat

Train visit to Montserrat

Other FAQ questions and Answers on travel to Montserrat

For general facilities for the disabled traveller in Barcelona please see the following link that also includes several reports by disabled people who have visited Barcelona.

Facilities For disabled in Barcelona