Logbook · 7 places

What to see and do in les Valls de Valira

What to see and do in les Valls de Valira (Alt Urgell, Lleida): 7 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 5 Monuments · 1 Activities

How far each place is from the centre of les Valls de Valira

Towns near les Valls de Valira

What to see in la Seu d'Urgell 2.4 km · 13 places
What to see in Montferrer i Castellbò 4.6 km · 5 places
What to see in Alàs i Cerc 5.2 km · 3 places
What to see in Estamariu 5.5 km · 2 places
What to see in Ribera d'Urgellet 9.4 km · 4 places
What to see in Arsèguel 11 km · 5 places
What to see in el Pont de Bar 12 km · 7 places
What to see in Valls d'Aguilar 13 km · 2 places

Spain › Catalonia › Lleida › Alt Urgell › les Valls de Valira

What to see and do in les Valls de Valira

Les Valls de Valira
Village
Les Valls de Valira is a municipality in the Alt Urgell formed in 1970 by the union of the former villages of Anserall (the seat), Ars, Civís, Arcabell and Bescaran, with 845 inhabitants (INE 2025). Set in the heart of the Pyrenees, next to the border with Andorra, a large part of its territory belongs to the Alt Pirineu Natural Park. The parish church of Anserall occupies the former temple of the monastery of Sant Serni de Tavèrnoles, of which the Romanesque apses and the transept survive. In Os de Civís, a settlement accessible only from Andorra although administratively Catalan, stands another Romanesque church dedicated to Saint Peter, and in Bescaran the bell tower of the former 11th-century monastery of Sant Martí is preserved.
Church of Sant Martí d'Ars
Monument
A Romanesque church with a single nave and a slightly irregular plan, in les Valls de Valira, documented since the year 839 in the consecration charter of la Seu d'Urgell. It has a square apse, separated from the nave by a triumphal arch and covered by a barrel vault, and a timber roof with a side entrance on the epistle side. Notable is its bell tower attached to the north wall, circular in plan, with two storeys of twin windows, plain capitals and Lombard decoration beneath a conical slate roof: together with that of Santa Coloma de Andorra, of finer workmanship, it is one of the few cylindrical Romanesque bell towers preserved in the Pyrenean valleys of the Alt Urgell and Andorra, and it is dated to around the 11th century. In 2018 it was declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection).
Bell Tower of Sant Martí de Bescaran
Monument
11th-12th-century Romanesque bell tower, the only standing element of the old church of the monastery of Sant Martí de Bescaran, already abandoned when it was annexed in 914 to Sant Sadurní de Tavèrnoles. It is 17 meters high, square in plan with 4.40 m sides, and has three floors of mullioned windows with Lombard decoration; today it stands isolated, out of context, in the village cemetery. Declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's top heritage-protection category) in 2018.
Castle of Ars
Monument
Castle first mentioned in 1102, in an agreement between Guitard Caboet and Arnau Ramon de Castellbò; in 1110 Guillem Guitard de Caboet donated it to the chapter of Urgell. It was part of the defensive system on the left bank of the Valira. Of its precinct, mainly a rectangular tower of about 5 by 6 meters survives, today reduced to fragments up to 9 meters high. A Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's top heritage-protection category).
Dovecote Tower of Bescaran
Monument
The Torre Colomer de Bescaran is an old dovecote of medieval origin above the village of Bescaran, at 1360 metres above sea level, with an interior space of three by four metres and walls 70 centimetres thick, of unhewn local stone except at the corners. Inside it holds some six hundred and sixty nesting holes for breeding pigeons, arranged in regular rows, with a window at about four metres in height and two rows of slate slabs running along the upper part of the building. A land register of Bescaran from 1497 already records the name Palomera for the plot where it stands; the dovecote was linked to the viscounty of Castellbò. It has been a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection) since 1988.
Monastery of Sant Serni de Tavèrnoles
Monument
The Benedictine monastery of Sant Serni (or Sant Sadurní) de Tavèrnoles, one of the most notable in the Alt Urgell, is a Romanesque building located in the village of Anserall, in the municipality of les Valls de Valira, beside the old royal road from la Seu d'Urgell to Andorra, which probably gave rise to its name, derived from taverna. Declared a bien cultural de interés nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection), only the east end and the transept survive of its three-nave church, with a singular apsidal arrangement of three apses in a cross around a main one. Documented since 806, from 815 onward it received important donations from the counts of Urgell and la Cerdanya, and came to have priories from the Berguedà as far as Andorra. What remains of the church was restored between 1971 and 1975.
Les Valls de Valira Main Festival
Activity
The fiesta mayor of les Valls de Valira is celebrated in a municipality formed by several former villages, including the one that hosts the monastery of Sant Serni de Tavèrnoles.