Poblet Monastery

I have to agree with Andrew_Kerr that this site deserves higher ratings than it was previously receiving, and from reading the older reviews it seems to be largely due to the way in which the tour system has been re-worked. Whereas previously an in-person tour was required, the availablity of these has now become significantly more limited as they have been supplanted with an audio guide that you can use to enter the full monastery at any time and tour at your own pace. (I say "full monastery" to refer to the large section open to tourists, though, as this is still an actively used monastery so there are sections exclusively reserved for the monks which travellers cannot enter.)

Poblet is located decently far away from any major cities, so the tourist traffic here is significantly less than you'll find in other WHS sites. I've been a little bit over-exposed to monasteries & cathedrals during my past nine months living in Spain so you should expect that if you haven't been seeing a new cathedral every few weeks, this site will impress you even more. The audio guide is well narrated in multiple languages and helpfully tours you through each section and room of the monastery, ensuring you don't miss anything. The stark Cisterian style of architecture with limited decoration is quite powerful and lends to a sense of austerity in the place, but not so much as to make the location boring. It's neat to see all the …

I seem to be bucking the trend here by awarding Poblet 4 stars but I really enjoyed my visit there. It's a very impressive 14th century Cistercian abbey, set among the rolling foothills of the Prades mountains.
I usually find an hour is plenty when visiting most cathedrals and abbeys but I happily spent half a day here exploring the various features.
Poblet Abbey or to give it its proper name, The Royal Abbey of Santa Maria de Poblet was founded in the 12th century by French Cistercian monks along with 2 other abbeys at Vallbona de les Monges and Santes Creus.
Although the building we see today reflects the splendour of the 14th century Gothic abbey, much of it is restored, the building having fallen into disrepair in the 19th century.
Of particular interest is the altar, dating from 1527, the cloisters and the tombs of the kings and queens of Aragon. It's also possible to walk on part of the roof (see picture) which I enjoyed immensely.

My frequently professed affinity for sacred architecture did not translate into surpassing appreciation of Poblet Monastery. I saw an impressive enough complex which I could not call extraordinary. The historical context of the monastery's importance stayed beyond me. This was largely a function of the constraints of the visit. You can freely wander around the territory inside the outer walls of the monastery, but getting inside the main part of the complex is possible only roughly once an hour in the company of a guide. The tour is conducted in either Spanish or Catalan. If you indicate at the reception that you do not speak either language, you get a small booklet with explanations instead. Then, during the tour, you are allowed to explore on your own and not follow the guided group. Sounds like a pretty good deal for someone who dislikes crowds until you realize that the booklet throws historical facts at you and mentions key features of every space you see without tying it into a coherent picture. I am left wondering whether an ability to understand the tour guide would be key to get more value out of the visit.

That being said, there are certainly some interesting features at Poblet Monastery that can be observed without any guidance. The most obvious of them is the façade of the main church, with a cluster of decorations on an otherwise blank wide wall. The façade opens onto Plaça Major, the wide main square of the complex …

The Poblet Monastery is picturesquely located on a small hill between olive groves, you can see the panorama of its towers from afar. We came from Tarragona by car and when we drove down the street along the outer wall of the monastery we got a first impression of the size of the complex. With its towers, battlements and huge gates it looks more like a medieval fortress than a monastery.

We arrived at a quarter past 11 a.m., a little too late for the regular guided tour, but we met a group from Switzerland and they invited us to join their guided tour. That wasn't bad, because the tour was in English, regular tours are in Spanish, Catalan, or French. First we went through two large gates and crossed two almost empty courtyards, then we had to wait for our guide in front of the Puerta Real, the inner gate flanked by two massive towers. The tour was excellent, the guide gave detailed information and we had plenty of time to visit all rooms, we spent almost two hours in the monastery. Although it is still an active monastery, large parts of the complex are open for visitors. We went through many corridors und stairs and even on the gallery on top of the cloister.

Poblet is a perfect example of Cistercian architecture and its aesthetic principles. No pomp or lavish decoration, but simple and functional architecture, large and high rooms with harmonious proportions. Wonderful examples are the refectory …

I visited this WHS in May 2014. Since I was arriving late from Andorra I decided to sleep at Hostatgeria de Poblet which is actually inside the Poblet Monastery Walls and it's great value for money especially considering that you get a 3 euro discount to visit the monastery too. Although the monastery opens at 10am, I still woke up early in time to listen to the monks' vespers at 07:30. After that I hiked the Espluga de Francoli loop trail around the monastery walls which took me around an hour during which I passed through olive groves, vineyards and orchards. The views of the monastery from here are wonderful in the early morning light (photo) while the best time to take pictures of the Monastery entrance is in the afternoon. Prices have gone up and it now costs 10euros for a guided tour in Spanish or 7.50euros to visit without a guide, although you will still have to wait for the guide to open the door at 10.30am (very Spanish!) and follow the guide's instructions to how much time you're allowed in each floor before she closes the door. Overall, I had more than enough time to visit the monastery (around 2 hours) and follow the brochure in English however it's a bit of a pain that you can't exit before you reach the end of the tour and that you can't spend more time inside if you so wanted. The highlight of my visit was the walking trail …

This monastery was well worth a visit. I discovered that certain buses operating between Tarragona and Lleida detour via the entrance to the monastery, and that it was possible to make an afternoon visit from Tarragona that way.

We rented a car to go to Poblet from Barcelona, it took us about 1.5 hours to get there. The monastery's sharp, edgy towers make a pretty sight from a distance. We were there early (at 10 a.m., when it opens to the public), not many other cars in the huge car park next door.

The entrance fee of 5 EUR includes a guided tour. They are only given in Spanish, Catalan, and French - but we were provided with a booklet in Dutch and could tag along with a Spanish group. The friendly guide made sure that we got the main message of each part of the tour.

The tour was a bit too hurried to our taste: we would have liked to stay in the various rooms a bit longer.

The Cistercian monastery of Poblet is one of the more interesting and impressive buildings I have been to. The fact that it houses the tombs of a long line of kings and queens of Aragon in a great pantheon makes it especially noteworthy. Anybody coming to Catalonia should try to visit Poblet, located in the hills northwest of Tarragona, since you will hardly ever come across a better monastery anywhere. Having said that, however, you should either have a private car or join a bus tour, since reaching Poblet by public transport is very inconvenient, to say the least. I didn't really mind the 4-km walk from the nearest train station, since the weather was great even in late October, but I don't think many people would do the same (and there were hardly any signs).