46 Fun Facts About Andorra

Andorra lies high in which mountain range?

The Pyrenees. The country is a knot of valleys averaging 1,996 metres above sea level, so steep that only a sliver of its land can be farmed and most food is imported.

Andorra's two co-princes are the Bishop of Urgell and which head of state?

The President of France. The share began with a medieval French count, passed by inheritance to the kings of Navarre, and joined the French crown when one of them became Henry IV.

Tradition holds that Andorra was created by which Frankish ruler for help against the Moors?

Charlemagne. The legend is built into the national anthem, El Gran Carlemany, which is sung in the country's own voice and opens by calling him 'my father'.

The paréage of 1278 split Andorra between the Bishop of Urgell and which count?

The Count of Foix. The pact ended a long feud between his family and the bishops, and Andorra has counted 1278 as its birth as a state ever since.

Under pressure from the EU over tax evasion, Andorra agreed in 2013 to introduce which tax for the first time?

Personal income tax. For decades there was none, which helped make Andorra's banks a haven for foreign money.

Before 1993, Andorra's tribute to its episcopal co-prince included six cheeses, six live chickens and six what?

Hams. The payment in kind was a token relic of feudal dues, and it lapsed when the 1993 constitution cut back the co-princes' powers.

Andorra's General Council long shared its building with what?

The criminal court, which sat on the ground floor. The house went up in the late 1500s as a family manor; the council bought it in 1702 and stayed until 2011.

What is kept in the Cabinet of the Seven Keys in Andorra's old parliament house?

Historic state documents. The cabinet has a lock for every parish, so it was the Closet of the Six Keys until a seventh parish arrived in 1978.

Andorra's first constitution, approved by referendum in 1993, opened the way for it to join which body that year?

The United Nations, in July 1993. The constitution cut back the co-princes' feudal powers and made Andorra a parliamentary state able to act for itself abroad.

What did the émigré adventurer Boris Skossyreff proclaim himself in Andorra in July 1934?

King, as Boris I. He promised to turn the valleys into a tax haven and declared war on the Bishop of Urgell, who had him arrested within a fortnight.

Andorra la Vella holds which record among European capital cities?

Greatest elevation: 1,023 metres above sea level. In a country whose lowest point is 840 metres up, even a capital on the valley floor outranks every other in Europe.

Which animals appear on the coat of arms at the centre of Andorra's flag?

Cows: two red ones, the old arms of Béarn, a French viscounty bound up with Andorra's medieval history. The red cow still counts as a national symbol.

Which form of transport is missing from Andorra altogether?

Railways. Good roads link the valleys to France and Spain instead, and the nearest station stands just across the French border.

Which peak is Andorra's highest point?

Coma Pedrosa, in the north-west. Surveys put it between 2,942 and 2,946 metres, so Andorra just misses having a peak of 3,000.

Andorra's two main rivers meet near the capital to form which principal river?

The Gran Valira. It carries almost all of Andorra's water south towards the Mediterranean; only one far corner of the country drains north to the Atlantic.

Which industry makes up about four-fifths of Andorra's economy?

Tourism. Banking also matters; before the visitors came, the valleys lived on sheep, a little farming and handicrafts.

A 2011 monetary agreement with the EU gave Andorra the right to do what with the euro?

Mint its own coins. Andorra had used the euro informally since 2002; the pact made it official, though banknotes stayed off limits, and the first Andorran coins appeared in January 2015.

Which two currencies did Andorra use side by side before the euro?

The French franc and Spanish peseta, one from each neighbour, because Andorra never had a currency of its own.

Andorra is not in the EU, but which arrangement has bound it to the bloc since 1991?

A customs union, signed in 1990. Andorran factory goods trade with the EU as if from a member state, while its farm produce is treated as foreign.

What is odd about Andorra–La Seu d'Urgell Airport, the airport that serves Andorra?

It lies outside Andorra, about 12 km beyond the border with Spain. No aeroplane can land inside the country, whose only landing places are heliports.

The Madriu-Perafita-Claror valley, Andorra's only World Heritage Site, was listed by UNESCO as what?

A cultural landscape. For all its wild look, the valley was listed for its people: shepherds' huts, terraced fields, old iron workings and a system of common land dating from the 13th century.

In 2020 Ordino parish won which UNESCO designation?

Biosphere reserve. UNESCO praised country shaped by centuries of traditional farming and herding, where pine and fir forests shelter the bearded vulture and a rare mountain lizard.

The Port d'Envalira, the 2,408-metre pass above Pas de la Casa, holds which record for its mountain range?

Highest paved road. Since 2002 most traffic has skipped the climb through a toll tunnel almost three kilometres long, bored beneath the pass at about 2,000 metres.

What is Andorra's national day, 8 September?

Our Lady of Meritxell Day honours the country's patron. On that very night in 1972 her old chapel burned down, statue and all, and a modern sanctuary by Ricardo Bofill took its place.

Which is the largest group of foreign nationals living in Andorra?

Spanish. About half of Andorra's residents are foreign nationals, and counted by birthplace the Spanish-born even outnumber the Andorran-born, 34% to 32% on 2024 estimates.

Andorra competed in Eurovision from 2004 to 2009 as the only country to sing in which language?

Catalan. None of Andorra's six entries reached a final: the first, in 2004, scored 12 points, every one of them from Spain.

Andorra's football team beat which country 1-0 in 2017 for its first competitive win since 2004?

Hungary, beaten by a looping first-half header that caught their goalkeeper off guard. It was only the second competitive win in Andorra's history.

Which footballer's Kosmos group bought FC Andorra in December 2018?

Gerard Piqué. Within months his group paid some €450,000 for a vacant place in Spain's third tier, and in 2022 the club reached the second division for the first time.

After the Second World War, French judges passed which sentence on Radio Andorra's founder?

Death, passed in his absence for collaboration after he had fled to Spain. Within three years the sentence had been lifted, and his station stayed on the air throughout.

Which crop is still grown in Andorra's valleys to supply the country's own factories?

Tobacco. Long grown in the valleys, it still goes into Andorran-made cigarettes and cigars, which with furniture are the country's main factory products.

Caldea, one of Andorra's best-known landmarks, is one of Europe's largest examples of what?

A thermal spa. The springs that feed it surface at about 70°C, and centuries before the tourists came the same hot water was put to work washing and dyeing wool.

Le val d'Andorre ('The Valley of Andorra'), a Paris hit of 1848, was what kind of work?

An opera, by Fromental Halévy. Now almost forgotten, it was one of his greatest successes when it opened at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

The bishop who is co-prince of Andorra would abdicate, the Church has warned, if the General Council did what?

Legalised abortion. Andorran law forbids it in every circumstance, and women who want one generally travel to Spain or France.

Which circle dance from across the southern border is danced in Andorra alongside the local contrapàs?

The sardana. Dancers join hands in a ring that anyone may step into, yet it is no ancient rite: it spread from the Empordà district only in the late 19th century.

Which Andorran office, created in the Middle Ages to speak for the people before the co-princes, now presides over the General Council?

The syndic. The council once appointed syndics to run the valleys' day-to-day administration; today's Síndic General chairs its 28 members as speaker.

Which country competes alongside Andorra at the Games of the Small States of Europe?

Iceland. The Games are open only to European countries of under a million people, and nine take part.

Which traditional winter stew do Andorrans cook together each January for the feast of Saint Anthony?

Escudella, a thick soup of vegetables, meat and pasta. Brotherhoods of cooks make it in bulk for the saint's day and hand a bowl to anyone who turns up.

Which global financial body did Andorra join only in 2020, as its 190th member?

The International Monetary Fund. Andorra had applied that January, weeks before the pandemic struck its tourist economy, and signed the articles in Washington nine months later.

Most Andorrans are Catholic and a bishop is joint head of state, yet what is the country's official religion?

It has none. The constitution guarantees freedom of belief, though it gives the Catholic Church special recognition in keeping with Andorran tradition.

Which midsummer tradition of Andorra and its mountain neighbours did UNESCO add to its heritage list in 2015?

Fire festivals. On the night of the summer solstice, villagers carry flaming torches down the mountainsides to light beacons below, a descent that marks young people's passage into adulthood.

In which sport did Andorra's leading club return to Spain's top league in 2014 after 18 years away?

Basketball. BC Andorra spent four seasons in the Liga ACB in the 1990s, dropped back to regional competition, and climbed all the way up again in 2014.

What did Andorra gain for the first time in 1982, after seven centuries of rule by co-princes and council?

A prime minister. Òscar Ribas Reig headed the first executive, the Govern, chosen by the General Council; a full constitution followed eleven years later.

Before a professional police force was formed in 1931, who kept order in Andorra?

A local militia, the Sometent, raised parish by parish. Andorra still has no army, and the militia survives: it can be called out in emergencies, as it was in the floods of 1982.

Andorra's national rugby union team plays under which nickname?

Els Isards, the local name for the mountain chamois. Rugby reached Andorra from southern France, and its best-known club long played in French competitions before moving to Spain's league in 2022.

Andorra's first competitive football win in a European Championship qualifier came in 2019 against whom?

Moldova. A red card left them with ten men early in the second half, and minutes later Marc Vales scored the only goal of the night.

Which Greek historian of Rome's wars with Carthage mentioned the Andosini, a people long linked to the name Andorra?

Polybius, who lists them among the tribes Hannibal subdued after crossing the Ebro in 218 BC. The link is disputed: one dictionary derives Andorra from a word for shrub-covered land instead.