En Route To Andorra

Andorra is a small nation situated in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. Its history as such is an interesting curiosity, a monument to international agreement when nothing much is at stake. So far as we could tell, it consists of a mountain valley with steep sides, picturesque, if isolated. It stood between us and Figueres, and, most importantly for all concerned, it charges no sales tax. On anything. Gordon had said, if you're interested in cheap booze, not to mention other things, go to Andorra. So we did. There's only one road in from Spain, and only one road out, to France. Mountains either way. But worth the trip.

Again, for us, it's like the American southwest, except without
the open carry and the assholes

Top of the pass; only 2500 feet or so, but the grades were such we
had to stop three times to let our poor 1.7L turdo-diesel cool down

So we thought from the pass we would see Andorra and took a
whole  roll of pix of this town, which turned out to be in Spain

Andorra is off to the left, 20 miles or so

Romanesque Churches Of The Boi Valley, 2

Continuing our visit to the Boi Valley and its Romanesque churches and their murals...

Down the valley a bit, the third church, Sant Joan de Boi

Pretty touched up but the murals were very colorful and
interesting to look at

A lot of Revelations stuff here as well as the usual bestiary

Seven-headed bad guy(s)...

And, most interesting...the mural surrounding
the door...churches of this vintage would have
been painted on the outside as well as within

Environs

The fourth church, Santa Eulalia D'Erill da Vall, apparently had
no murals, so we moved on

Romanesque Churches Of The Boi Valley, 1

After our visit to the national museum of art in Barcelona (http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/04/museu-nacional-dart-catalunya-romanesque.html), and viewing the murals there, we resolved to visit the Boi Valley in the mountains of northern Catalonia to see the churches and remaining murals ourselves. We took in three of the four churches on June 22nd.

The first church, St. Climentis; but the point of the photo is to
conjoin it with the ski resort condos that surround it

Inside, some original Romanesque era stuff

Contemporary iron buttressing; all these thousand year old
buildings lean precariously one way or the other

The main Pantokrator...projected on the wall...the real thing at
the museum at Montjuic

Real remnant

Fuller view

Our founder

Among the higher tech presentations...what the
chancel would have looked like originally

Helpful model

St. Climentis

Next church...other end of village..Santa Maria
de Taull

Some touched-up, some original

Leaning out

Not Romanesque, but still beautiful carving,
painting, and very old

Letting There Be Light In Ainsa

Still en route to the Boi Valley was the hill-top and wall-girted town of Ainsa (thanks again, Jane), with its nice and reasonably-priced aire. We explored and spent the night; for a buck fifty.

Increasingly vertical terrain

Tower and haze

 

Part of Ainsa's defensive wall; and terrain

Main square

Ambience; not unknown to tour buses

Tower of the little parish Romanesque church

Inside the church, 12th century, my guess

A good case in point about why they invented Gothic

But wait! There's a Divine Illumination Machine (DIM)! We've
seen these all over Italy, where you get a minute for a euro;
here, you get 5 minutes of light AND five minutes of Gregorian
Chant! Top that, Italy! (But not in English too)

The little cloister, part pointy, part Romanesque

Crypt; cryptic

Not so many of the funny face sculptors got here

Barrel vaulting; friction and gravity...and  maybe
a little mortar

I can't believe I did not take a picture when the lights were on;
sometimes you just get carried away...

Next morning, at the aire

Surroundings...well into the Pyrenees now 

Moving along, we are struck by how much the
terrain resembles the American Southwest

Water feature

Rockfall barrier

Reservoirs all over in and near the mountains