Sant Romà dels Vilars, a thousand years of rough stone

Some churches impress with what they have and others with what they lack. Sant Romà dels Vilars belongs firmly to the second group. There are no famous paintings and no 17 m tower, just a small stone nave that someone raised around the 10th century, when Andorra was a scattering of hamlets. I think it’s the ideal visit for understanding where the grand Romanesque churches came from.

Among the oldest in Andorra

Andorra Turisme places it in the pre-Romanesque period, around the 10th century, and ranks it with the oldest churches in Andorra. It’s rudimentary and austere, with a small rectangular nave and an apse that is rectangular too. That alone sets it apart from the Romanesque churches of Andorra built in the 12th century, which nearly always have a rounded apse.

The walls are blocks of unworked stone laid in horizontal courses. On top sits a tiny bell gable with a single opening under a rounded arch, made of tufa that differs in colour and texture from everything else. That’s the detail you’ll spot from the path.

Walking up from Caldea

The shortest route, El tomb de Sant Romà dels Vilars, starts on the Camí de la Salita next to the Pouader car park by the spa, crosses Avinguda del Pessebre and climbs past the Font del Pui and Sant Jaume to the hamlet of Els Vilars. It’s 960 m with 93 m of ascent. A longer 3.5 km version exists as well.

As for the interior, the official listing gives no opening times and points you to the Escaldes-Engordany tourist office. If going inside matters to you, ring (+376) 890 881 first.

The viewpoint next door

A few metres from the church, at 1,131 m, the Sant Romà dels Vilars viewpoint faces south. You look down on Escaldes-Engordany and Andorra la Vella, and eastwards over the landscape of the Madriu valley. Holm oaks, oaks, nettle trees and elms surround it, and the listing mentions blackbirds, wrens and blue tits.

A morning between two churches

On the short route you pass Sant Jaume d’Engordany first, already recorded in 1040 as belonging to Sant Cerni de Tavèrnoles, the monastery the Bishop of Urgell consecrated that year. That church collapsed in the 1950s and the present one was consecrated in 1992 on the same site, with its own viewpoint at 1,100 m. I like the contrast, a church rebuilt three decades ago and, a few minutes higher, another that has stood for around a thousand years. From Sant Romà, according to the viewpoint listing, the path continues, for anyone who wants more, towards Can Diumenge and on to the Coll de Jou.

If Romanesque is your thing, the same parish has Sant Miquel d’Engolasters, 12th century and with everything this one lacks. Seeing both in a day is the best art history lesson I can offer you in Escaldes.