The invention relates to a method for de­tecting wear of the diverting and/or drive pulleys of an elevator, and to an eleva­tor. In the method, a limit value is as­signed to at least one of the following quantities: allowed displacement of the rope end against the spring force of a spring, allowed rope force of the rope, allowed tension of the rope, compression of the spring holding the rope, tension of the spring holding the rope, stress of the supporting structure adjacent to the rope fastening. During operation of the eleva­tor, the displacement of an individual rope or another one of the above-mentioned quantities in relation to the correspond­ing quantity for the other ropes is de­tected from the sprung fastening arrange­ment of the rope ends. An alarm signal is generated if this quantity for an individ­ual rope exceeds the predetermined limit value during operation of the elevator. An excess of the limit value is due to an in­creased rope force and indicates greater than normal wear of the rope groove of the diverting and/or drive pulley correspond­ing to the individual rope. To detect wear of the rope grooves (3) of the diverting and/or drive pulleys (4, 5), the elevator comprises a detector device (9) arranged in conjunction with the sprung fastening device (7).