Sispony, the village of Casa Rull

Sispony is little more than a kilometre from La Massana as the crow flies, yet it feels like another century. The Comú calls it the valley’s balcony, and from its slope you do see half the parish. What brings me up here, though, is Casa Rull, the best museum in La Massana.

A village on paper since 1162

According to Andorra Turisme, the village first appears in the concordat of 1162, whose signatories include one G.R. de Sispony. The church takes longer to turn up in the records. Its first mention is on 30 May 1272, when Rula de Serters left 12 deniers to Sant Joan de Sispony in her will.

The building you see now is 17th century, according to the inscription on its front, with a tower belfry and a rectangular nave, and it was probably raised on a medieval structure. The Comú’s tourism website adds a 19th-century cycle of Passion paintings by Josep Oromí. It stands in the middle of the village, so you’ll pass it anyway.

Yards, stone and Casa Rull

Andorra Turisme describes the old core as a trip into the past, with stone lanes and houses, wooden and wrought-iron balconies, and animal yards at the heart of the village. On the main street stands Casa Rull Museum, home of the Perich family, landowning farmers, built in the 17th century and a museum since June 2000. The visit takes an hour and costs €5.

My tip is to do the house first and walk afterwards. Once you’ve seen how a family like this organised itself, the yards and barns of the village read quite differently. The house is also part of the Rural Habitat itinerary, together with two other house museums, Casa d’Areny-Plandolit, up in Ordino, and Casa Cristo, over in Encamp. Between them they show how daily life differed from one kind of family to another in 19th and early 20th-century Andorra. If the subject grabs you, I’d fit all three into the same trip, as they sit in three different parishes and make a good excuse to see more of the country.

Up to the Enclar ridge

Sispony is also the way into the Enclar ridge. Andorra Turisme suggests crossing the Muntaner col and climbing the Enclar and Carroi peaks, with views over the capital and the surrounding valleys. It’s half a day in the hills from the village; the rest of Andorra’s routes are in hiking in Andorra.

To make up for the effort, the same source recommends chocolate from Xocland, which it calls the country’s only small-batch chocolate maker, or jam from El Pastador.

Getting there

The drive up from La Massana is short. On public transport, museus.ad has you ride the L5 or L6 into La Massana and change to the M1, the parish bus that loops round Escàs and Sispony. Close by is Anyós, with Sant Cristòfol on top of its hill. Another small village in the same parish is L’Aldosa in La Massana.