Material testimonies of the construction of the state of the Pyrenees: the co-printing of Andorra (France)

Description

The transnational good in series "The material testimonies of the construction of the State of the Pyrenees: the co-printing of Andorra" is a selection of monuments distributed in the three states which testify to a history and a unique reality which, without interuption, during the last millennium, was woven with three hands by the people of Andorra, the bishops of Urgell and the counts of Foix, then by their successors: kings of France, leaders of the revolutionary period and'Empire and, finally, the presidents of the French Republic.The series consists of twelve monuments (10 in Andorra, 1 in France and 1 in Spain) of different periods, from the Middle Ages to the 16th century, which reached us in a good state of conservation and protection and which all havean optimal degree of authenticity and integrity.

Rich in its typological, stylistic and functional heterogeneity, this series of testimonies, architectural and archaeological, religious and civilians, is accompanied by an extraordinary documentary fund.She teaches, over more than seven hundred years, without hiatus, in a complete and coherent way, in an authentic and complete way, the exceptional process of building a European state until today.Sis on the same territory, with the same borders, with the same administrative and territorial structure, this state is based on the same triangle of institutional relations dating back to the 12th century which, today, structures, again, its constitution and its institutions of'Independent, modern, democratic and social state: the coprinchy of Andorra.

From the city of the only Urgell to the city of Foix there is, as the crow flies, approximately seventy kilometers.Two and a half days walking with a good step;Today, barely two hours by car.The most direct path that connected the two cities, went up along the Valira towards upstream, entered the Andorra valleys, crossed the mountains via the passes - Saleu, Fontargent, Port del Rat - and went down to joinThe Toulouse plain following the Ariège downstream.The route, from north to south, from south to north, crosses the axial Pyrenees;These formidable mountains that articulate the Iberian peninsula to the rest of the continent.The straight line passing through Urgell Cathedral, Andorra and Foix Castle is practically perpendicular to the axis of the Pyrenean chain, it draws an ideal section of it.Starting at 700 altitude at the Cathedral of Urgell, she meets an agglomerate of summits which are around 3000 meters, in which the Andorra enrolled, then continues up to 400 meters at the Château de Foix.This axis illustrates the entire geological, geomorphological, environmental and climatic sequence of the context which hosts the series constituting good.Physical parameters which served as catalysts, ensured permanence, prints the character and gave its physiognomy to the good and each of the testimonies of the series.

Throughout this road, scattered at the bottom of the valleys, we find a set of first -rate heritage elements which testify to a multisecular relationship shared between the Urgellet, the Andorra and the Ariège or the former county ofFoix.Taken individually, the monuments are undoubtedly splendid.But if we contemplate them in an organic, network, interconnected way, they speak to us with one voice, they testify and tell us a singular, exceptional, unprecedented story in Europe and in the world: the political creation of the StateAndorran, result of the balance between civil powers, ecclesiastical power and the necessary counterweight of modest but well -organized communities.The scenes of this process, perfectly visible today, are the tesselle of a living mosaic.These are testimonies of the past that have built a unique present in European and global history and that project themselves into the future, integrating structures born more than seven hundred years ago, themselves heirs of relations, narrowAnd uninterrupted, between the communities of the Ariège valleys, Andorra and the Urgellet born of a very distant common legacy, present without interruptions or discontinuities neither in time nor in space.