RIPOLL Barcelona

Wilfred the Hairy, the first Count of Barcelona, used Ripoll as a base from which to unite the rival factions of the southern Pyrenees, following the reconquest of Catalonia from the Moors. He founded the Monestir de Santa Maria in 879 on the site of an earlier Visigothic church. During its golden age in the 11th and 12th centuries, the monastery ruled over an area stretching from Barcelona into modern France and became a great centre of European learning. Most of the church was destroyed by fire during the dissolution of the monasteries in 1835, but the great west portal survived.

This is one of the jewels of Catalan Romanesque architecture, its pillars and arches covered in vivid reliefs of Biblical stories, zodiac signs and scenes from agricultural life. The 12^th century cloisters of the monastery church have also survived, with expressive faces on the sculpted capitals. The nearby Museu Etnogratic has everything from matchboxes and cowbells to Civil War posters gathered together by a local historian.