The Sacred Art Museum, Santa Eulàlia's treasury in Encamp

The Sacred Art Museum is the smallest and most hidden of Encamp’s three museums, and the only one you can’t see just by turning up. I think it works best as an add-on to Santa Eulàlia rather than a visit on its own, but if religious art interests you, it holds pieces you wouldn’t expect in a mountain village.

An annexe on the old churchyard

The museum sits in a modern building next to the parish church of Santa Eulàlia d’Encamp. The council explains that it stands where the parish graveyard lay until the 1930s, within the church’s monumental ensemble. It displays liturgical objects from Encamp’s churches and other artworks kept in the parish archives, some of them found during the remodelling of Santa Eulàlia.

What’s inside the Sacred Art Museum?

The collection is split into three sections, metalwork, textiles and documents. The pieces that museus.ad and the council single out include the remains of a medieval wrought-iron candlestick, a fourteenth-century bronze censer, a True Cross reliquary from 1571, a Baroque chasuble and several parchments, one with early musical notation in neumes. Andorra Tourism adds that the candlestick came from Sant Romà de Vila, another of the parish’s churches.

The eye-catcher is a facsimile of one of the copies of the Beatus of Liébana, the one held at La Seu d’Urgell, with illuminated miniatures that museus.ad calls exceptional. It isn’t the original, but seeing its pages a few metres from a Romanesque church makes a lot of sense, and the La Seu d’Urgell link is fitting in a country where the bishop of Urgell is one of the two co-princes.

The Encamp art that left home

To appreciate this museum, it helps to know what’s missing. Much of the parish’s religious art is far away. The Romanesque altar frontal from Sant Romà de Vila and the apse paintings from Sant Romà de les Bons now belong to Barcelona’s MNAC, and the churches show copies. Oil lamps from Santa Eulàlia are on display at the Espai Columba in Santa Coloma.

That’s why I like this annexe. It’s one of the few places where Encamp’s pieces are still in Encamp, a few metres from the church where they were used, which makes them easier to understand than in a big museum’s display case.

Opening and booking

Tread carefully here, because the official sources disagree. museus.ad says it opens all year by appointment, while Andorra Tourism says it opens only in July and August. What they agree on is that there’s no visit without booking. Arrange it with Encamp’s tourism office at Plaça del Consell 1, on +376 731 000; Andorra Tourism also mentions booking through Casa Cristo.

Tickets cost €5, €3 for students and pensioners, and entry is free for under-12s, youth card holders and Andorran schools. It accepts the PassMuseu. Both museum and church are accessible for wheelchair users, unlike Casa Cristo.

What’s the visit like?

It’s guided. museus.ad offers it in Catalan, Spanish, French and English, allows photographs and estimates an hour and a half, with tailored visits on request. Andorra Tourism gives 30 minutes and says the visit includes Santa Eulàlia church. Between the two, I’d allow a good hour to do it properly. In July and August Casa Cristo opens every day, so it’s easy to chain the two visits in one morning.

The other option is to join Encamp’s guided religious heritage walk around Encamp, a route from Plaça del Consell through Les Bons, Sant Miquel de la Mosquera and Santa Eulàlia to this museum. That also needs booking.

Getting there is simple. National bus L2 runs from Andorra la Vella to Encamp, and the museum sits by the parish church at the bottom of the old quarter. If you’re skiing from the Funicamp, it’s close enough to fit in on an afternoon when the upper lifts are shut.

Is it worth it?

If you’re into religious art or Romanesque, yes, especially alongside Santa Eulàlia and the wider trail of Romanesque churches in Andorra. If you’re short of time or travelling with small children, I’d put Casa Cristo and the car museum first. For the full picture, see my guide to museums in Andorra.