RIPOLI, SANTA MARIA DI. — A Benedictine abbey in the diocese of Vich in Spain.
The town that grew up around the abbey is situated at 681 m. above sea level, at the confluence of the Fresser with the Ter. The church of Santa Maria di Ripoli constitutes the most notable Romanesque monument in Catalonia. The church was consecrated by Abbot Daguino in 888 under the protection of Wilfred the Hairy; a new, larger construction was carried out in 935 and expanded in 971. In 1031, Oliba razed the building to create a new one with five naves, the minor ones separated by pillars and columns; a large transept and two towers at the corners of the narthex, as in the cathedral of Orléans; six secondary apses in addition to the main one. The side chapels were added in the 13th–14th centuries; the choir in the 16th century; the carved wooden altarpiece is now in the diocesan museum of Vich; in front of the high altar the floor is inlaid with musical notation. There are statues of the Madonna of the Rosary by Limona and that of St. Raymond of Peñafort by Valemijana. On the exterior, the bell tower is 40 m. high. The marvelous carved portal of the 12th century has been called “the triumphal arch of Christianity.” From bottom to top it depicts the struggle between good and evil, rewards and punishments, biblical scenes such as the crossing of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven, the rock of Horeb, and the judgment of Solomon; then the elect, the triumph of Jesus Christ among the Apostles, angels, and the elders of the Apocalypse; on the two jambs are the Apostles Peter and Paul. The cloister, one of the wonders of Romanesque art in Catalonia, has two tiers of galleries (12th and 14th centuries) with 252 columns, the lower ones in violet jasper, the upper ones in granite with capitals carved with religious, mythological, and popular scenes. The San Pedro Museum contains a library rich in incunabula, a precious antiphonary, and collections of ceramics, wrought iron, etc.