ARCHITECT, Catalan
(active around 1032 in Catalonia)

Exterior view

1032
Photo
Church of Santa Maria, Ripoll (Gerona)

The first buildings in the new Romanesque style were constructed in the Catalonian region on both sides of the Pyrenees. This region had been independent since 865 and was ruled by the counts of Barcelona.

In the eleventh century in Ripoll, a new building was constructed, reusing a few foundations, a few parts of wall, and a few capitals from an old church consecrated in the ninth century. The layout of the new church of Santa Maria is reminiscent of the Roman-early Christian style: five-aisled hall layout, prominent transept, similar to Old St. Peter's in Rome.

The importance of the building, consecrated in 1032, is the fact that it represented a clear move away from the traditional regional models in the Iberian Peninsula. After Ripoll, very few Mozarabic elements were integrated into the new type of architecture, which now was dominated by Roman forms.

The photo shows the eastern section with seven apses.

View the ground plan of the Church of Santa Maria, Ripoll.