One sunny September morning we drove into the hills - up and up - past blue and verdant views to El Montell in the Baix Penedes. We parked and asked in the village of Aiguaviva's lone restaurant (El Cellar) for the path which is well hidden on a hairpin-bending road. We parked again, then climbed the prickly, stony path to the hermitage dedicated to St Mark. Every year on his saint's day - his image is carried here from a church four miles away.
We also visited - lower downhill - hermitages at Capilla de St Paric, Santa Maria de Banyeres, el Castell de St Oliva and, on the beach, the Hermitage of Roda de Bara. I suspect these edifices are just a few of many remains of a long history of Cistercians in Catalonia. We couldn't find any trace of anchoresses. We might have had better luck in France where there seem to have been as many as in England. However, we did slip into the convent church at Las Monjas and listened to the nuns' ethereal singing. In the gloaming, we could just about see the six or seven of them in the choir.