The prettiest villages in Andorra

Andorra has a reputation for hotel blocks and shopping streets, and on the valley floor it’s earned. But drive ten minutes up almost any side road and you reach villages of stone and slate with a Romanesque church, old hay barns and meadows all around. These are the ten I’d visit, each scored, with a warning about one that isn’t what it seems. For a complete list of villages, without the ranking, see towns and villages in Andorra.

Pal, where the mountain village survives

My number one is Pal in La Massana. It stands above 1,500 m and the comú has protected it as a historic ensemble under a special planning scheme since 1998. Old houses and new ones share the same stone, timber and slate, and above them rises Sant Climent, built between the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The tourist board says it’s the only church in Andorra with a three-storey bell tower. A few kilometres away, the Bike Park and Pal’s viewpoints give it a summer life too.

Nearby in the same parish are Sispony and Anyós. Sispony keeps its stone farmyards right at its heart, along with Casa Rull, one of the few places that show how a farming family lived when crops and livestock were the whole economy. Anyós is worth it mainly for Sant Cristòfol, a 12th-century church on a hill at about 1,300 m.

Ordino, the parish of stone villages

If I could pick only one parish for a village tour, it would be Ordino. Its comú recognises eight official villages, and two of them sit near the top of my list. La Cortinada has Cal Pal, a manor house dated 1347, the church of Sant Martí with murals inside, and the Mola and Serradora de Cal Pal, a mill and sawmill from the late 16th and early 17th centuries that still hold their water-powered saw and millstone.

Llorts is the village of wrought-iron balconies, with the Els Cóms fountain and Sant Serni, a listed building. Next to it is the Llorts mine, the only one in the country still intact, with about 30 metres of tunnel. The Iron Route ends here, a walk of an hour and a half along the old royal road from La Cortinada.

Les Bons and Ransol, in the eastern valleys

In Encamp, the historic quarter of Les Bons is one of the parish’s best-kept corners. It has 16th and 17th-century buildings, a water tank dug into the ground, the Rossell and Cotxa dovecotes and the Torre dels Moros. Above them stands Sant Romà de les Bons, which the tourist board describes as the only church in Andorra with a semicircular Lombard-style apse.

Ransol, in Canillo, is small, with medieval houses in its old centre. Its church, Sant Jaume de Ransol, is of pre-Romanesque origin and stands by the road on a stretch of the Camino de Santiago. From the Coma de Ransol a path climbs to the Serrera peak, over 2,900 m, which makes the village a good base for walkers.

Is there a medieval village in Andorra?

This is where many visitors get it wrong. Auvinyà, five minutes from Sant Julià de Lòria, has cobbled lanes, handmade street lamps, stone houses with wooden balconies and even little bridges. It looks like an untouched medieval village, but the tourist board says plainly that it’s a recreation built in the 21st century. It’s traffic-free and pleasant, and from the chapel of Sant Romà d’Auvinyà, dated to the 10th century, you can see the whole valley. Worth a stop, provided you go in knowing it’s new.

If you want the genuinely old, Les Bons and Ransol are your answer.

Two more in the south

Fontaneda, also in Sant Julià, has fewer than 150 residents and one quirk, every stone house with its slab roof stands on the same side of the road, looking out over the valley. The church of Sant Miquel sits above and keeps traces of paintings by the Master of Anyós. The Mas Berenguer winery, which grows pinot noir, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, is close by.

In Andorra la Vella, Santa Coloma pairs an old core with its pre-Romanesque church and the Torre dels Russos, listed in 2004. It’s the least village-like of the ten, but it has the most interesting church. All the Romanesque churches, with how to visit them, are in Romanesque churches in Andorra. The landscapes that aren’t villages are in most beautiful places in Andorra.