Montserrat (mountain) which are visible from a great distance. The mountain is composed of strikingly pink conglomerate, a form of sedimentary rock. Montserrat was designated as a National Park in 1987. In 1493, Christopher Columbus named the Caribbean island of Montserrat "Santa Maria de Montserrate", after the "Virgin of Montserrat". The Benedictine Abbey can be reached by road, by the Aeri de Montserrat cable car, or by the Montserrat Rack Railway. The lower stations of both the rack railway and the cable car can be reached by Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya train from Barcelona's Plaça d'Espanya station. From the abbey,
Education in Montserrat opened in 2003. The only secondary school (pre-16 years of age) on the island is the Montserrat Secondary School (MSS), a government-operated school in Salem. Montserrat Community College (MCC) is a community college (post-16 and tertiary) in Salem. MCC took over sixth-form college from MSS upon its opening in 2004. The University of the West Indies maintains its Montserrat Open Campus. The University of Science, Arts and Technology in Olveston, a private tertiary institution, was established in 2003 and is accredited by Montserrat's Ministry of Education. In the pre-1997 era, Montserrat had state, private, and church schools. In 1989 the