Ripoll Ethnographic Museum and the Scriptorium

What it is

The Museu Etnogràfic de Ripoll was born in 1929 as the Arxiu Museu Folklòric, set up in the attic of the former church of Sant Pere. It was the first museum in Catalonia dedicated to ethnography. For seventy years it collected, without interruption, the trades, customs and objects of the Ripollès. After ten years of refurbishment, it opened its current home in March 2011, next to the monastery of Santa Maria. Its collections explain how people in the eastern Pyrenees lived before and during industrialisation.

What you will see

The visit starts on floor 0, goes up to floor 2 and ends on floor 1:

• Floor 0. An audiovisual show on the museum's more than 80 years, prehistoric pieces from the excavations of Eudald Carbonell, the remains of a lorry tyre rim destroyed in a bombing in 1939, images of the monastery before its restoration and a fragment of wall found during work on the building.
• Floor 2. The sound of sheep bells leads you to the memory of the old museum and to the shepherds' diorama, made in 1932 by Salvador Alarma and Josep Mestres Cabanes. Next come work on the land, with shepherds and farmers, life at home, popular religiosity and leisure time: handmade toys, dolls, tin soldiers, spinning tops and cricket cages.
• Floor 1. The town's craftsmen, the Saturday market and industry: textiles and, above all, iron. The forges produced iron of great quality, and three quarters of the population lived from trades linked to it. Ripoll's portable firearms, from the 17th and 18th centuries, are now kept in museums in Paris, Edinburgh, St Petersburg and Chicago.

The Scriptorium

The museum also runs the Ripoll Scriptorium, a permanent, interactive and educational exhibition on the importance of the monastery in copying manuscripts between the 10th and 12th centuries, among the most significant in Europe. Adults and children learn how parchment was made and how inks were prepared. In summer it runs guided tours; for groups, book on 972 70 31 44. Ask at the museum whether the ticket includes it and where the visit takes place.

Opening hours

• September to June: Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 13:30 and 16:00 to 18:00. Sundays and holidays, 10:00 to 14:00.
• July and August: Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 13:30 and 16:00 to 19:00. Sundays and holidays, 10:00 to 14:00. On Mondays in August, 10:00 to 14:00.
• Closed: Mondays, 1 and 6 January and 25 and 26 December.

Tickets

• General: €4.
• Reduced: €3 for pensioners, young people aged 13 to 25, students, large or single-parent families and unemployed people; €2 with a disability or a Carnet Jove.
• Free: children aged 0 to 12 and everyone on the last Sunday of each month.
• Groups of 15 or more: €2.50 per person; the guided tour for a group costs €35.

Allow about an hour for the museum.

How to get there and accessibility

It is in the centre, on the same square as the monastery and the tourist office. You can walk from the R3 train station. The museum publishes physical accessibility information and works with the Fundació MAP in Ripoll; if you need something specific, call 972 70 31 44 beforehand.

With children

It is a good plan for rainy days and for children: they go in free up to age 12, the route is varied and the floor of old toys hooks them. The museum offers family activities, such as a treasure hunt that leaves the display cases and heads out into the streets, and a card game for inventing stories. Ask about them at the ticket office.