The battle was fought near the Santa Maria de Montserrat Monastery, which is located on the mountain 36 kilometres (22 mi) northwest of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

[1] Suchet's successful Siege of Tarragona wiped out the bulk of the Spanish regular forces in northeast Spain.

After the siege, the newly promoted marshal took the divisions of Louis François Félix Musnier and Bernard-Georges-François Frère to clear the Catalan militia or miquelets away from the Lleida–Barcelona road.

Suchet sent the soldiers of Louis Jean Nicolas Abbé's brigade scrambling up one mountain track while his remaining troops watched other possible escape routes.

Suchet installed an Italian garrison on the mountain, but after the capture of Cervera in mid-October by Luis Roberto de Lacy's Spanish forces, the Imperial troops were withdrawn.