Casa de la Vall

Casa de la Val is a historical house in Andorra la Vella, Andorra. It was the seat of the General Council of Andorra until 2011. It lies just to the southwest of the Andorra National Library. It is a heritage property registered in the Cultural Heritage of Andorra.^[1]

Casa de la Vall

Coat of arms of Andorra

Meeting room in the Casa de la Vall

It was built in 1580 as a manor and tower defense by the Busquets family. In 1702, it was acquired by the Consell de la Terra.^[2]

The floor of the building is rectangular. The structure has two floors.^[2]

The ground floor is for the administration of justice with the court room. On the first floor, the main floor of the family home, is the Council Chamber, a chapel dedicated to St. Ermengol and the "closet of the seven keys" which are stored historical documents such as the Manual Digest and Politar Andorrà. The cabinet has a lock for each of the parishes of Andorra. The second floor housed, until the beginning of the nineties, the Postal Museum of Andorra, which was dismantled to provide meeting space for the Comissió Tripartida, in charge of drafting the Constitution of Andorra in 1993.^[1]

At the door of the house is the Busquets coat of arms along with the coat of arms of Andorra.^[1]

A tower in the shape of a dovecote stands in a corner, and there is a creu de terme (a stone cross on a pillar) which is typical for the region. In the gardens of the building is a contemporary sculpture, designed by Francesc Viladomat, called La Danse.^[3] Casa de la Vall is depicted on the Andorran 1 euro coin.^[4]

Restoration

When the property was restored in the 1960s, the chimney of Cal Ribot was used as a model to inform the restoration of the Casa de la Vall chimney.^[5] Other changes during the restoration involved removal of the exterior plastering, the addition of a turret, and modifications to the roof.^[1]

Literature

• Diccionari Enciclopèdic d'Andorra, Àlvar Valls Oliva, Fundació Crèdit Andorrà, Andorra la Vella 2006, ISBN 978-99920-1-629-9