THE HOUSE OF
BUTTERFLIES

A small natural history museum

C/ Estació, 4 - 17535 Planoles
Tel. 696 414 592 / 938 890 717
www.lacasadelespapallones.com

Surroundings

Located in the Ribes valley in the county of the Ripollès, the municipality of Planoles extends north-south across the middle part of the valley of the river Rigard (which runs east-west). This means that one part of the municipality faces north and the other south, which confers on the area a singular richness in plants and animals, and a great variety of different landscapes.

Cal Tit

Dòrria
Dòrria (1,560 m) lies almost at the top of the important pass of Collada de Toses. Cal Tit is the last house in the topmost part of the village. It has two faces and a small turret like a defence tower. During the War of the Spanish Succession, it was used as a barracks and there are still gun slits in its walls that were used to defend the house.
It is a stone house with a roof of thick local slate. The wood is oak and the floors are made out of wood and brick. The Gabaldà brothers bought it from its owner, Jaume Morer, in 1963 and have restored it since then.
Address: Camí dels Carlins, nº 1.

Church of St Víctor de Dòrria

Dòrria
This small and charming village church stands at 1,550 m and was consecrated in 903. During its long history, many architectural elements such as the small bell-tower have been added. Inside, this beautiful building is home to a series of very valuable medieval wall paintings, which were only discovered during the restoration work carried out in 1997–1999. This discovery was one of the most important such finds in Catalonia in recent years and the building has now been declared a Site of National Cultural Interest.

Museum of the Shepherd in Fornells de la Muntanya

Fornells
This museum explains the life of the valley’s shepherds through a carefully kept and interesting collection of tools, implements and herbal remedies. They reveal what traditional life was like for the local shepherds and reveal details of a culture that has deeply influenced the people of the Pyrenees and, above all, the settlements of this area.

Church of St Cristòfol de Toses

Toses
This splendid eleventh-century Romanesque church consists of a single nave with an apse and two lateral chapels. The most characteristic elements of this church are the metalwork on the main door, the bell-tower and the medieval wall paintings in the nave. The main door still conserves its original ornamental ironwork made from iron from the local mines. The Romanesque bell-tower has a curious two-sided roof. Inside, there are a number of wall paintings dating from the end of the twelfth century, which are exceptional for the depiction of Christ Pantocrator, the only such painting by the so-called ‘Pyrenean School’ known in Catalonia, and the murals that extend beyond the ceiling of the apse.

Church of St Vicenç de Planoles

Planoles
This Romanesque church dates from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and consists of a nave and apse with a small Romanesque arched atrium. In the eighteenth century a narrow bell-tower, a chapel and a second nave – attached to the atrium – were added. A more modern restoration has highlighted the medieval elements of the building and revealed, for example, the atrium’s arches, the Lombard decoration on the apse and the interior main arches. This church is documented from 1141 but it is thought to be somewhat older.

Church of St Marcel de Planès

Planès
This eleventh-century church has all the charm of a genuine Romanesque structure: a nave and an apse with a floor plan that resembles a horseshoe or an arc. It has a graceful bell-tower built upon the triumphal arch. This church’s altar stone and front to the altar are today kept in the National Museum of Catalan Art in Barcelona, which also houses this church’s act of consecration dating from between 1018 and 1046.