After Canillo, Encamp is the next oldest of the six most ancient Andorra Parishes.
It is a picturesque, typically Andorra small town which stands on the bank of the western Valira. It lies on the broard valley in the center of the Principality of Andorra and surrounded by mountains and fertile plains.
Encamp’s church is very interesting. It is ruggedly Romanesque with an elegant and beatiful 12th-century bell tower. It is one of the most perfect bell towers in Andorra and has three storeys of Lombard windows. Three kilometers away is El Cortals, a small picturesque hamlet inhabited only at tobacco-harvesting time. Not far away stands an interesting pre-Romanesque chapel.
Les Bons is a small, picturesque village which huddles around the hermitage of Sant Romà, one of the oldest in Andorra. Les Bons still conserves the ruins of an old castle which was once the property of the Counts of Foix.
The church itself, dating from 1163, has a steeple bell tower (containing a single wall with apertures where the bell is hung).
Inside there is a reproduction of the Romanesque paintings conserved in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, in Barcelona (Spain).
There are also Gothic frescoes in the nave and a 16th-century retable dedicated to Sant Romà of Antioch
Transport has been one of the most important challenges of the 20th century.
Constant technological improvement has made vehicles an almost essential tool for modern society.
The National Automobile Museum illustrates the changes that vehicles have undergone since they first appeared, from the steam machine such as the Pinette (1885), the oldest item in the museum, up to the 1970s.
About eighty vehicles allow us to see how design has evolved to suit the needs of each period and how the speed and power of each model have been improved.
Also exhibited are about a hundred bicycles, an illustration of the challenges that technological advances have met, by transforming the simple, uncomfortable and dangerous vehicle, into a stylish, reliable and practical machine, via a process of selection that has enabled the bicycle of today to be a high-tech and commercial product, apt for a wide range of requirements.
Casa Cristo, in the main street of Encamp, has been arranged by the local council of Encamp to enable visitors to see what life was like in a humble Andorran home of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
All the furniture from the time when Casa Criso was still a countryman’s house has remained intact, and all that has been done for display purposes has been to restore the items to their original arrangement.
Casa Cristo is a house with little history, as is usually the case of humble mountain dwellings; it is first documented in 1885. The building - a narrow, tall house between party walls - has five storeys. The lower floor has the entrance, store-rooms and cellars. The first floor, the domestic area, dominated by the fireplace and the kitchen. There are several rooms on the second and third floors. Right at the top, under the eaves, is the upper part of the house, another extra area for storage of grain and other products. No luxury, no superfluous items - a demonstration of work and austerity.
Encamp parish church. Its 23-meter bell tower is the tallest Romanesque Lombard-style bell tower in all Andorra. It also has a 14th century arcade, a 16th century comunidor, a place where harvesters were blessed and storms were warded off (the only one remaining in the entire country), a 12th century Romanesque baptismal font, three Baroque altarpieces from the 17th and 18th centuries and stained glass windows from 1998.
One of the loviest in the principality and lying at a height of 1.616 m above sea level, the Lake of Engolaster is surrounded by leafy woods.
The Lake and its surrounding land are the stuff of poetry and are of outstanding beauty. Legend embraces the charming vicinity of the Lake of Engolasters. One legend says that all the stars in the sky, illuminated by the peerless beauty of Lake, are destined to fall to the bottom of its waters and stay there as prisoners till the end of time.
Another legend refers to the origins of the famous lake; according to it Engolasters was formed by the gush of waters unleashed by divine powers in order to chastise the impiety of a beautiful woman, an ancient inhabitant of a village close to the lake shore. This unkind woman refused to give a piece of bread to a pilgrim who was passing by this area.According to the legend, the pilgrim was Christ himself.
Legend and reality intermingled constitute an attractive frame for the marvelous picture of the beauty of Engolasters Lake.
Such is its beauty that it defies all attempts at description, and is much more beautiful than words can ever say. Near the lake there is the hermitage of Sant Miquel d’Engolasters with a fine 12th century Lombard bell-tower.The church stands at a height of 1.500 m and provides the most wonderful views of the countryside around.
According to a document dating from 1162 and another dated 1176-there was once a village on the spot- possibly it is the same one mentioned in the legend of that beautiful woman who refused to give Christ a piece of bread. Inside the church of Sant Miquel d’Engolasters there were one some on interesting Romanesque paintings wich now hang in the collection of the museum of Romanesque art of Barcelona. Also of great interest is the Romanesque apse, the atrium, and the Lombard windows.
This attractive spot has the serene beauty of the lake as its focal point, and is surrounded by mountains which are very often snowcapped.
The beautiful valley of Envalira is close by. Access to it is through the pass of the same name (Port d’Envalira) which is also often snow-covered.
The approach road to the pass is characterized not only by its sleepy rising nature, but also by its windings. The road is flanked by the attractive countryside of Andorra, full of meadows, clusters of pines and mountain peaks. In all there is an attractive constant change of scenery.
This lake is surrounding by landscape of truly outstanding beauty. The lake of Font Negra is close to Pas de la Casa, that pours out into the Garona.
Situated on the border with France, the name of Pas de la Casa (literally “pass of the House”) derives from the fact that in former times it was a shepherds’ hut that served as a landscape a landmark for travelers who forded the river Ariège at that point.
El Pas de la Casa, an internationally known winter tourist center, has magnificent ski-trails and lifts which are used by skiers on their way to Coll Blanc, Grau Roig, to Font Negra, Costa Rodona and La Solana.