Resumen de A consideration on the composition of the outside wall of St. Maria in Ripoll's apse
St. Maria in Ripoll, a nucleus for the medieval culture in Catalonia, is renowned for the sculptures on its portal and capitals in its cloister. So far, however, few scholars have shown much interest in the basilica incurably damaged in a series of natural and man-made disasters, which have inevitably led to the severe lack of research and thus knowledge on its chronological facts. One will look at the central apse and the niche line, as the first step of the studies that will follow.
The composition of the outside wall of Santa Maria de Ripoll’s apse, built in the first half of the 11th century, is similar to that of Sant Vicenç the Cardona’s apse and of Sant Pere de Casserres’ apse in the sense that all of them consist of the same architectural elements – the pilaster – strips coupled by two semicircular arches and the niches used in the way that two niches are treated as one unit.
Contrary to H. E. Kubach’s theory as to the developmental process of the niche line in Italy, in Catalonia two niches were treated as one unit and pilaster-strips were connected by semicircular arches in as early as the early 11th century. Therefore, it can be speculated that the niche line where three or more niches are treated as one unit, almost identical to that in Lombardy, first appeared in the second half of the 11th century in Catalonia; in other words, the niche line in Catalonia had the developmental process of its own right.
Likewise, the inside walls of apses in Catalonia show the evidence of their Catalan origin. The inside walls are often adorned with niches rising perpendicularly, which does not at all give the impression that they are the copies of the horizontal apses in Lombardy.
