Santa Maria de Ripoll

Santa Maria de Ripoll is a former Benedictine abbey in Ripoll, at the foot of the Catalan Pyrenees. The complex includes a Romanesque church with five naves and one remaining bell tower, along with a cloister that was rebuilt during the 19th century.

Count Wilfred the Hairy founded the abbey in 879 after reclaiming the territory from Islamic rule. The first consecration took place in 888, and the monastery quickly became a center for learning and book production in Catalonia.

The name comes from Latin and means "riverside bank," referring to the monastery's location by the river Ter that still flows beside its walls today. Visitors walking through the cloister can see how generations of monks shaped this corner of the Pyrenees through farming and manuscript copying.

The entrance is located on the western facade with the famous portal, leading directly into the main church. The complex sits centrally in town and is easy to reach on foot from anywhere in Ripoll.

The 12th-century portal features over a hundred figures carved in stone reliefs, including biblical scenes and Old Testament characters. The sculptors used different shapes and sizes to create a kind of stone picture book that tells stories without words.