Ripoll
©
Ripoll

Ripoll

Catalan Pyrenean foothills town centred on Santa Maria de Ripoll's Romanesque portal.

Ripoll is a small town in the Pyrenean foothills of Catalonia, best reached by train from Barcelona. Its main draw is the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll, founded in the 9th century by Wilfred the Hairy — the legendary first Count of Barcelona. The monastery was one of the most important in medieval Catalonia and its elaborately carved Romanesque portal, dating from the 12th century, is considered a masterpiece of the style.

The town sits at the confluence of the rivers Ter and Freser, and the surrounding mountains offer good hiking. Ripoll is also a logical stop on the way to Ribes de Freser, where you can board the rack railway up to the mountain sanctuary of Núria.

Guide

Getting There

Ripoll is straightforwardly reached by train from Barcelona. The R3 Rodalies line runs from Barcelona Plaça de Catalunya to Ripoll in about an hour and 45 minutes, with trains running several times daily. The station is a short walk from the monastery.

By car, Ripoll is about 100 km north of Barcelona via the C-17 motorway, following the Llobregat and Ter valleys into the Pyrenean foothills. Parking is available near the monastery. From Ripoll, the C-17 continues north to Ribes de Freser and then the French border at Puigcerdà.

Guide

Things to Do

Ripoll is compact enough to see on foot in a day, though the monastery alone rewards a long morning. The town's iron-working past — furnaces and forges that supplied nails, weapons, and firearms to much of the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages — is commemorated in the Ethnographic Museum. The surrounding valleys open toward the high Pyrenees.