Hermitage and Viewpoint of Sant Joan de la Muntanya

The hermitage of Sant Joan de la Muntanya is one of the most picturesque places in the region and offers views, from its viewpoint, of the Conca de Barberà and the Serra Carbonària and, on days of good visibility, Montserrat and the Pyrenees.

In the hermitage, there is a bell at the entrance and to the right is the chapel of Sant Joan Baptista, excavated in the rock. A fireplace and a kitchen have also been rebuilt to shelter the mountaineers. If you go up to the top of the building, you will reach a small square with some commemorative pieces from various Montblanc organizations and, on the right, you will find the Mirador de Sant Joan, with a book of signatures and the Catalan flag, which is changed only for Christmas and Saint John.

The viewpoint is a red saldón rock, which at the same time acts as the wall and roof of the hermitage. At the viewpoint there is a tile altarpiece that indicates which towns and mountain ranges can be seen: Montblanc, Barberà de la Conca, Forès, Solivella, Serra del Tallat, Miramar, Montserrat, Andorra, El Canigó, the Massif de la Maladeta with Aneto, etc. If you follow the ridge next to the viewpoint, you will reach the Cova de Nialó.

After the Spanish Civil War ended, a group of young people fixed the rooms and covered the roof. But the absence of hermits and the location in the middle of the forest caused the hermitage to deteriorate to the point that, in the early 1990s, it was completely in ruins. It was then that Joan Serafí Serra i Ollé and the brothers Joan and Josep Jàvega i Bulló created the Estrams group (genesis of the Hermits of Sant Joan de la Muntanya),
In 1993, the Estrams group was the catalyst for the desire to recover the hermitage and the Ermitans de Sant Joan de la Muntanya group was formed. This group, made up of around thirty members, went up to the hermitage once a week to have breakfast together and work on different tasks, inside and outside the hermitage. His task meant fixing it almost completely, rebuilding the fountain, placing a copy of the Damian Forment altarpiece, etc. After almost 70 years, the hermitage celebrated the Eucharist again.

Fantastic viewpoint of Montblanc!