Wandering About Andorra

The modest capital of the principality of Andorra is Andorra la Vella, sitting in a mountain valley on the French-Spanish border in the Pyrenees Mountains.

You can see interesting sculptures off Carrer Part de la Creu, in a tiny courtyard. This collection of distinctive, modern sculptures is known as the Internal Garden of Placa Casadet. Eight life-sized sculptures are made of stone, metal, and other hard media by various artists.

Overflow by Jaume Plensa

The UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley, provides a microcosmic view of how humans have used the high Pyrenees’s resources for millennia. Covering 4,247 hectares, or 9% of the principality’s total size, are its striking glacial landscapes of rugged cliffs and glaciers with high open pastures and steep wooded valleys. In addition to the preservation of pastoralism and a robust mountain culture—most notably, the survival of a communal land-ownership system dating back to the 13th century—it also reflects historical shifts in climate, economic prosperity, and social structures. Houses, particularly summer towns, terraced fields, stone pathways, and signs of iron smelting can be found at the site.

The medieval bridge, La Margineda Bridge, spans the Gran Valira River. The bridge was built around 1487. (pictured above) The arch stones are made of pumice. Located near the mouth of La Portella d’Aixovall, the mountain pass that divides Sant Julia from Andorra la Vella parish. This bridge was designated a national cultural site in 2003. Andreu Altaro, a Valencian writer, created the sculpture next to the bridge to honor the inaugural Congress of Catalan Lanuage and Literature.

Mirador Roc del Quer is located outside of the small town of Ordino. Visitors can get an amazing experience seeing the rugged beauty of mountainous landscapes. The cantilevered platform was completed in 2016 and extends 12 meters out over the edge of the cliff. Standing on the platform, you can see the village of Canillo through the small glass windows in the floor.

Next to the platform is the statue of a man gazing over the landscape called The Ponderer. It is the artwork of Argentinian sculptor Miguel Angel Gonzalez. Visitors often leave coins on the beam connecting the thinker to the platform.

The impressive bronze statue titled La Noblesse du Temps, or the Nobility of Time, is located in Placa de la Rotonda in the very heart of Andorra Vella. The sculpture created by Catalan artist Salvador Dali shows a melting clock from one of his most famous paintings, The Persistence of Memory. Besides the melting clock, the statue features several other figures. The clock is mounted on a tree. An angel sits to one side, lost deep in thought, and on the other side, a woman stands up from a bath. The sculpture was cast in 1984 and visited many cities before being permanently installed in the city’s square in 2010. It stands some five meters tall. It was gifted to the government of Andorra by Enric Sabater, who was Dalí’s agent between 1968 and 1982. Today, it is one of the most notable landmarks of Andorra la Vella.

The St. George’s Museum is located in Ordino. It is one of the three museums in the West dedicated to iconography. Originally a private collection, the museum is now accessible to the general public. It contains Orthodox icons from the 14th to the 19th centuries from Bulgaria, Greece, Russia, and Ukraine. The Virgin St. George and other saints are shown in the icons. Seventy polychrome wood statues of Christ from Spanish schools from the 11th to the 19th centuries are also part of the collection. The museum has a documentary library and an audiovisual display highlighting the major Orthodox cathedrals and the origins of the icons in the collection.