Two silver romanesque canopies in the abbaye of Ripoll

© 2019 Editions Ophrys. All rights reserved. The main altar of Santa Maria of Ripoli in Catalonia was rendered monumental by the addition of two silver canopies in the Middle Ages. Sources indicate that there was a first ciborium in the 11th century, constructed during the government of the famous Abbot Oliba, and then a second that replaced it approximately one hundred years later, after the metal of the precedent had been lent in 1141 to the Count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer IV, patron of the monastery. The importance of the two ciboria is indisputable. The one from the 12th century may have been the prototype for a remarkable series of wooden canopies produced in the region of Ripoll, from wich fragments have been preserved. On the contrary, there are four large stone column bases that historians have always associated with the second canopy, but which, in reality, were not part of it. The documents very clearly indicate that both ciboria in Ripoll was made of silver and not of stone. Neither the format nor the volumes of the bases correspond with the upper columns in metal.