The Portada - Monasterio de Santa Maria in Ripoll

Portada?, do you mean La Portalada del Monestir de Ripoll, right?: http://www.monestirderipoll.cat/ The word is Catalan for "big door", coming from "porta" (door). "Portada" would translate as "cover" as in magazine cover. In any case, the usage of the generic word portalada requires adding its location (del Monestir de Ripoll in this case) otherwise it makes no sense. Btw, Ripoll is one of those Catalan words hard to pronounce for non-Catalans, check here how it sounds the double-elle at the end of the word (second pronunciation, user Catalunya, it's a bit clearer).

The portalada can be seen without entering the monastery albeit if you visit off hours, there's a gate a few metres in front of it as you can see in this map and it's located in these arches.

Ripoll is not so near Barcelona, it's about 2h by train. There are +20 trains per day. The line is R3. There's also a bus service, but due to the abundance of trains, it only has one sortie at 8pm from Barcelona. Thus, why would you want to do 2h to see it from the outside anyway? :))

If you're very much into monasteries, Catalonia has plenty of them. Among many others, you should also check these gorgeous Medieval works of architecture:

1. Reial Monasteri de Santes Creus -located in Aigüamurcia, south-west of Barcelona
2. Monestir de Santa Maria de Poblet -located in Poblet, not far from Aigüamurcia
3. Reial Monastir de Sant Cugat del Vallès -located at 15km from Barcelona, very easily reachable by train (PDF)
4. The remains of Sant Pere de Rodes (--video) -located in the north-east, in Costa Brava.
5. and of course... The Abbey of Montserrat (--video) -located in a beautiful natural park north-west of Barcelona, not too far from the city.
6. and not as impressive still far easier to visit -as it's "in" Barcelona- the Reial Monestir de Pedralbes (--video)

These are some of the best monasteries in Catalonia: http://www.monestirs.cat/monst/calveu.htm

If you go to Ripoll, allow some time to walk around the historic district.

Warning: Ripoll is the town in which I waited a couple of hours on a Sunday for a bus (toward Girona, not toward Barcelona) that simply never showed up. I recommend not counting on Sunday buses on the Ripoll-Olot-Girona route!