Sornàs, the first village up the valley from Ordino

Sornàs is one of those villages you drive through without noticing. It sits on the CG-3 just past Ordino village, and the interesting part can’t be seen from the road. You find it on foot, along the old royal road that follows the river.

A small village with its own quarter

Sornàs counts as one of the official villages of Ordino and, small as it is, heads one of the five quarters the council uses to run the parish, alongside Ordino, Ansalonga, La Cortinada and Llorts. A quarter is a political and administrative division within the parish, and Sornàs has its own representatives, known as llevadors, listed on the council’s website. In other words, this cluster of houses has a say in parish life, which tells me more about Andorra than most monuments do. It’s the first village you reach heading up the valley, before Ansalonga, on the stretch of road bus L6 covers on its way to La Cortinada.

Sant Roc, a chapel from 1730

On plaça del Poble stands Sant Roc, the village chapel. The tourist board dates it to 1730 and describes it as a simple example of rural church building, with a rectangular nave, a square east end and a bell gable with a round, voussoired arch. It isn’t Romanesque and makes no claim to be, yet it’s one of nine religious buildings on the church trail the council suggests through Ordino and the upper valley. For the great Romanesque ones, see Romanesque churches in Andorra.

Along the royal road

To me the best way to see Sornàs is to arrive on foot. The royal road leaves from Santa Bàrbara in Ordino, follows the Valira del Nord and, level with Sornàs, crosses the main road to continue over a second wooden footbridge towards Ansalonga. That stretch climbs gently under good shade, hugging the woodland, which makes it one of the pleasantest walks in the valley in August. The tourist board suggests the full route for families, 6 km with barely 100 m of climbing to Llorts, and the parish bus runs you home afterwards.

A fiesta, ski hire and a guesthouse

In 2026 the Sornàs village fiesta ran from 14 to 16 August, according to the council’s events listing; dates for 2027 aren’t out yet. In winter there’s a practical reason to stop. Of the 45 hire shops the tourist board lists across Andorra, the only one in Ordino parish is here, so if you’re heading up to Ordino Arcalís without skis, it’s on your way. To stay, the council’s list includes La Mariola, a rural guesthouse, and Ordino village, with most of the parish’s hotels and the bus to Andorra la Vella, is only a few minutes down the road. I’d treat Sornàs as a pleasant pause on a valley walk rather than a base in its own right.