Sant Romà de les Bons, the church that kept its date inside the altar

Very few Romanesque churches in Andorra can tell you the day they were consecrated. Sant Romà can, because the record turned up inside its own altar. To my mind that alone justifies the climb, more than the paintings, which are a copy.

A date hidden in the altar

Sant Romà de les Bons belongs to the historic group of Les Bons, at the top of Encamp village. The council describes it as a Lombard Romanesque church consecrated on 23 January 1164, going by the consecration record found inside the altar. That stone altar is still in place, with traces of the paintings that once covered it.

The building is simple and well proportioned. A single rectangular nave under a barrel vault, a rounded apse decorated outside with Lombard blind arches and pilaster strips, and a belfry wall with two openings spanning the whole west end. The west doorway carries a saw-tooth frieze, which Andorra Tourism says is, together with the apse arcading, the only architectural ornament on the church.

What paintings will you see?

The drum of the apse shows a copy of the twelfth-century Romanesque murals attributed to the circle of the Master of Santa Coloma, the same workshop behind Santa Coloma church. They depict St John’s apocalyptic vision, with remains of the symbols of the four evangelists and a Christ in Majesty. Most of the originals ended up in Barcelona’s MNAC.

The Gothic layer, on the other hand, is genuine. The nave vault and walls keep sixteenth-century paintings in the Gothic tradition, with scenes of St Peter according to Andorra Tourism, and there’s a Gothic altarpiece from the same period. A twelfth-century granite font and a small round altarpiece by the entrance complete the interior.

The porch and the view

The porch was added in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, and from it, in the council’s words, there’s a magnificent view of the valley. That’s no exaggeration. From here you see why the whole group was built on this spur, with Encamp below and the old royal road towards France in sight.

Two churches of Sant Romà in one parish

Don’t mix it up with Sant Romà de Vila, Encamp’s other church dedicated to the same saint, in the settlement of Vila on the western slope. It’s plainer outside, but it holds a copy of a thirteenth-century altar frontal that Andorra Tourism describes as the only Romanesque painting on wood in the country, complete on all three sides. Its feast falls on Whit Monday, seven weeks after the one at Les Bons.

With time for just one, I’d choose Les Bons for the setting. If painting is your interest, Vila has something unique, though visits there are by appointment.

Visiting

Entry is free. Andorra Tourism explains that every church visit in the country is, apart from Santa Coloma, which goes with the Espai Columba museum. For Sant Romà it lists guided visits from July to November and on request the rest of the year, although the page for the historic group says mid-July to mid-September, so I’d check with the Encamp tourist office before going up.

Every July and August it also joins Romànic de bat a bat, the programme that opens six churches with a guide. The other five are Santa Coloma, Sant Climent de Pal, Meritxell, Sant Miquel d’Engolasters and Sant Joan de Caselles; you book on +376 839 760. Walk down afterwards to Santa Eulàlia d’Encamp and you’ve covered the best of the parish’s Romanesque in a morning. Skiers can fit it in too, since on the map the church stands only a few hundred metres above the Funicamp base station, close enough for an afternoon when cloud shuts the upper slopes. The wider map is in Romanesque churches in Andorra.

The Easter Monday feast

Every Easter Monday the council holds the feast of Sant Romà de les Bons, with a solemn Mass in the church, traditional Easter songs known as caramelles and sardana dancing before the aperitif that rounds off the morning. Easter Monday is a bank holiday in England and Wales anyway, so if you’re on an Easter ski week it’s an easy one to catch before flying home. If you want to see it full of locals rather than visitors, that’s the day.