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Church of Sant Martí d'Ars

les Valls de Valira, Alt Urgell, Lleida

1 Villages · 5 Monuments · 1 Activities

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Church of Sant Martí d'Ars

Monument · les Valls de Valira, Alt Urgell, Lleida

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).

Photo: Ferran Llorens (CC BY-SA 2.0)

What to see and do in les Valls de Valira