Consecrated in CE 888, Ripoll's monastery was Catalonia’s spiritual and cultural heart from the mid-10th to mid-11th century. The five-naved basilica was adorned in about 1100 with a stone portal that ranks among Spain's most splendid Romanesque art; its well-restored interior contains admirable floor mosaics, a multi-language display on the Bibles of Ripoll (rare illustrated manuscripts created between 1008 and 1020), plus the tomb of Guifré el Pilós, who founded the monastery.
Two floors of cloisters, dating from the 12th to 16th centuries and whose columns are carved with fantastical beasts, overlook a gurgling fountain and neat gardens.
