Village
Queralbs is a mountain village in the Vall de Ribes, in the Ripollès district, province of Gerona, with its stone old town and a stop on the Vall de Núria rack railway, the valley that gives its name to the main attraction of a municipality that today lives mainly from tourism and, to a lesser extent, from sheep and cattle farming. The earliest historical mention of the place appears in the 836 consecration charter of the Seu d'Urgell, the source of its motto as a thousand-year-old village. The Romanesque church, dedicated to Saint James, was built in the late 10th century over an earlier one consecrated in 978 and preserves a six-arched narthex; in the hamlet of Fustanyà stands another Romanesque church from the 12th century. An earthquake on 2 February 1428 severely affected the population. It has 202 inhabitants (INE 2025).
Nature
A high mountain valley at 2,000 metres above sea level, reached only by the Vall de Núria rack railway; considered the cradle of Catalan mountaineering, with a Marian sanctuary.
Nature
At 2,909 metres of altitude, the Puigmal is the highest peak in the Ripollès comarca and the second-highest mountain in the province of Girona, at the heart of the Girona Pyrenees, on the border with France. It rises between the municipalities of Queralbs and Err, in the French Alta Cerdanya, and is the highest summit of the so-called Gran Olla surrounding the Núria valley. Broad and rounded in shape, its ascent is easy if the weather is not adverse; at the summit stands an iron cross bearing the symbols of the sanctuary of Núria and a plaque with verses by Jacint Verdaguer, as well as a geodetic marker. The classic route starts from Queralbs along the Camí dels Peregrins to the sanctuary of Núria, which can also be reached by the cremallera rack railway inaugurated in 1931.
Nature
The Parc Natural de les Capçaleres del Ter i el Freser covers about 14,750 hectares in the Girona Pyrenees, in the Ripollès comarca, next to the border with France. It was declared a natural park in 2015 and includes the municipalities of Queralbs, Setcases, Molló, Vilallonga de Ter, Ribes de Freser, Pardines and Planoles. It extends over the headwaters of the Ter and Freser rivers, around the mountain areas of Núria and Ulldeter-Morens, surrounded by peaks over 3,000 metres such as the Puigmal, the Pic de Bastiments or the Balandrau. Within its boundaries lie the Vallter 2000 ski resort and the Vall de Núria, as well as an alpine ecosystem of great faunal and floral richness.
Activity
The Cremallera de Vall de Núria is the rack railway line connecting Ribes de Freser with Queralbs and the sanctuary of the Vall de Núria, in the Ripollès. Together with the Montserrat rack railway, it is one of only two such lines still in service on the Iberian Peninsula. As Queralbs is the highest point in the valley reachable by road, the rack railway is, apart from the mountain path, the only means of access to the sanctuary and the ski resort, and it has become one of the characteristic symbols of the valley and the comarca. The route has four stations — Ribes-Enllaç, Ribes-Vila, Queralbs and Núria — and an optional halt, Rialb, between Ribes de Freser and Queralbs.
Nature
Archaeological site in caves 501 metres long at 1,045 metres of altitude, with remains of human occupation from the Palaeolithic (about 15,000 years ago) and the Neolithic (about 5,000 years ago). Located next to the track of the Núria rack railway, the caves have cave-dwelling fauna and are also visited for caving; popular legends arose around them, such as that of the dones de l'aigua (women of the water). They were investigated by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans in the 1930s, and as early as 1970 the archaeologist Eudald Carbonell, together with Ramon Busquets, began the systematic recovery of materials from the earth disturbed by earlier excavations.
Nature
The highest prehistoric cave in the whole of the Pyrenees (2,235 metres), in the area of the Vall de Núria, occupied repeatedly between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age (5000-1000 BC).
Monument
Sant Jaume de Queralbs is the parish church of Queralbs, in the Vall de Ribes, dedicated to Saint James the Greater. Located in the upper part of the village, it is a fine example of Romanesque architecture: it has a single nave with a semicircular apse narrower than the nave, and a false transept with two side chapels added later. The pointed vault is the result of a reconstruction after the 15th-century earthquake. Notable is the porch of the entrance door, with six arcades resting on five columns with capitals carved with plant, animal and occasional human-head motifs. Above the north chapel rises the tower bell-tower, and another bell-gable crowns the transept. The church is already mentioned in 978, was rebuilt in the 12th century, when the porch was added, and was restored in 1967 by the architect Francesc Fajula.