Valira del Nord Valley

The chief place in the Valira del Nord Valley is Ordino (alt. 1,305 m/4,282ft), the most interesting feature in which is the Casa Plairal d'Areny de Plandolit. The house, originally built in 1633, was rebuilt in the mid 19th century by its then owner, the Baron de Senaller, initiator of the "New Reform" of 1866, which gave heads of households, for the first time, a limited right of election to the Consell General. The house, which has a magnificent wrought-iron balcony of 1843, is now open to the public. The tour begins in the hall, which contains a reproduction of the original "cupboard of the six seals". On the ground floor are store-rooms for oil and meat and a blacksmith's shop. On the upper floor are the old armory, now the principal room in the house, with a large barrel-organ, the kitchen and the dining room, in which the baron's Limoges and Sèvres dinner services (the latter a gift from the Austrian Emperor), bearing the family arms, are displayed. Other interesting rooms are the library (with the coats of arms of related families), the music room (with a copy of the original version of the Andorran national anthem), the private chapel and a bakery. In the garden are displayed old stone blacksmith's hammers.

In La Cortinada, a village surrounded by fields of tobacco, is the church of Sant Martí de la Cortinada, with Romanesque frescoes, a charnel-house and a beautiful old dovecot.

At the end of the road running through the Valira del Nord Valley is the magnificently situated mountain village of El Serrat (alt. 1,540 m/5,053ft).