Andorra

Andorra's legal origin is the paréage of 1278, an agreement ending a feud between the Bishop of Urgell and the Count of Foix by making them joint lords of the valleys. The Foix rights passed by inheritance to the kings of Navarre and then, in 1589, to the French crown; after the French Revolution they went to the French head of state.

So today Andorra has two co-princes: the Bishop of Urgell, appointed by the Pope, and the President of France, elected by French voters in which Andorrans have no say. Each co-prince has a personal representative in Andorra. Their powers are now largely ceremonial.

Tradition says Charlemagne granted the Andorrans a charter for helping fight the Moors; the national anthem opens with 'The great Charlemagne, my father'. The story is legend, but it shows how Andorra has always explained its independence — as an old privilege rather than a modern invention.

The Consell de la Terra, founded in 1419, gave heads of families from each parish a voice; it became the General Council, which still meets in the Casa de la Vall, a 16th-century fortified house that also served as court and archive. The 'cabinet of the seven keys' held the country's documents, opened only when a representative of every parish was present.

For centuries Andorra ran on custom rather than written law. Only in 1993, after a referendum, did it adopt a constitution making it a parliamentary democracy with separation of powers, legal political parties and its own foreign policy. It joined the United Nations the same year and the Council of Europe in 1994.

Citizenship is hard to acquire, and Andorran nationals are a minority of residents. Spanish, Portuguese and French workers make up most of the population, which shapes politics, housing and language debates.

Andorra has more than 40 small Romanesque churches, most from the 11th and 12th centuries, with stone bell towers, simple naves and, in some, painted apses. Santa Coloma, with its round tower, and Sant Joan de Caselles near Canillo are the best known; several original frescoes were removed in the 20th century and are now in museums abroad or replaced by copies.

The patron saint is Our Lady of Meritxell, whose Romanesque statue was venerated in a sanctuary above Canillo. The old sanctuary burned in 1972, and the Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill designed a new one, completed in 1976. Every 8 September, National Day, people walk to Meritxell.

Until the mid-20th century Andorra was poor and isolated: shepherds took flocks to high summer pastures, families lived in stone houses with barns (bordas) above, and tobacco was grown on terraces. Smuggling across the mountain passes — tobacco, livestock, later nylon and electronics — was a respectable trade.

Roads from Spain and France, opened in the early 20th century and paved later, brought a boom from the 1950s. Low taxes turned Andorra la Vella and Pas de la Casa into shopping streets for French and Spanish visitors, and banking secrecy drew money from across Europe.

That model changed in the 2010s: Andorra formally adopted the euro under an agreement with the EU (2011), ended banking secrecy, introduced income tax (2015) and signed information-exchange deals. Tobacco is still grown, and the bordas that housed hay now serve grilled lamb to tourists.

The whole country lies above 840 m, and its highest peak, Coma Pedrosa, reaches 2,942 m. Glaciers carved the valleys of the Gran Valira and Valira del Nord; lakes (estanys) fill the high cirques.

The Madriu-Perafita-Claror valley in the south-east, about a tenth of the country, has no roads. It preserves shepherds' huts, dry-stone terraces, old iron-working sites and summer pastures, and was listed by UNESCO in 2004 as a cultural landscape — Andorra's only World Heritage Site.

Skiing arrived in the 1950s at Pas de la Casa and Soldeu. Grandvalira, formed by merging ski areas, is the largest in the Pyrenees, and the Pal Arinsal and Ordino Arcalís areas cover the north-west. Ski tourism and summer mountain biking now fill hotels in both seasons, while warmer winters push resorts to invest in snow-making.

Andorra is not in the EU, the single market, the customs union or Schengen. It has a customs union with the EU for industrial goods and uses the euro, but visitors still pass customs posts, and goods leaving are checked against allowances.

After years of talks, an association agreement with the EU was negotiated to give Andorran businesses access to the single market with some exceptions. Its signature and ratification were slow and contested at home — check its status; it would not make Andorra a Schengen member.

The pressure points are housing — rents driven up by newcomers and remote workers — the dependence on Spanish and French roads, and the future of skiing in a warming climate. For travellers, the practical results are simple: carry insurance (no EHIC), watch your roaming, and know your customs limits.