Andorra

Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in southwestern Europe, bordered by France to the north and Spain to the south. Believed to have been created by Charlemagne, Andorra was ruled by the count of Urgell until 988, when it was transferred to the Diocese of Urgell. The present principality was formed by a charter in 1278. It is currently headed by two co-princes: the Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia, Spain, and the president of France. Its capital and largest city is Andorra la Vella.
Andorra is the sixth-smallest state in Europe, with an area of and a population of approximately 87,486. The Andorran people are a Romance ethnic group closely related to Catalans. Andorra is the world's 16th-smallest country by land and 11th-smallest by population. Its capital, Andorra la Vella, is the highest capital city in Europe, at an elevation of above sea level. The official language is Catalan, but Spanish, Portuguese, and French are also commonly spoken.
Tourism in Andorra brings approximately 8 million visitors to the country annually. Andorra is not a member state of the European Union. It has been a member of the Council of Europe and of the United Nations since 1993.

Etymology

The origin of the word Andorra is unknown, although several hypotheses have been proposed. The oldest is one put forward by the Greek historian Polybius, who describes the Andosins, an Iberian Pre-Roman tribe, as historically located in the valleys of Andorra and facing the Carthaginian army in its passage through the Pyrenees during the Punic Wars. The word Andosini or Andosins may derive from the Basque handia, meaning "big" or "giant". The Andorran toponymy shows evidence of Basque language in the area. Another theory suggests that the word Andorra may derive from the old word Anorra that contains the Basque word ur.
Another hypothesis suggests that Andorra may derive from Arabic ad-dārra, indicating a vast land which is located among mountains or a thickly wooded place. When the Moors conquered the Iberian Peninsula, the valleys of the High Pyrenees were covered by large tracts of forest. These regions were not administered by Muslims, because of the geographic difficulty of direct rule.
Other theories suggest that the term derives from the Navarro-Aragonese andurrial, which means "land covered with bushes" or "scrubland".
The folk etymology holds that Charlemagne had named the region as a reference to the Biblical Canaanite valley of Endor or Andor, a name bestowed by his heir and son Louis the Pious after defeating the Moors in the "wild valleys of Hell".

History

Prehistory

La Balma de la Margineda, found by archaeologists at Sant Julià de Lòria, was settled in 9,500 BCE as a passing place between the two sides of the Pyrenees. The seasonal camp was perfectly located for hunting and fishing by the groups of hunter-gatherers from Ariege and Segre.
During the Neolithic, a group of people moved to the Valley of Madriu as a permanent camp in 6640 BCE. The population of the valley grew cereals, raised domestic livestock, and developed commercial trade with people from Ségre and Occitania.
Other archaeological deposits include the Tombs of Segudet and Feixa del Moro, both dated in 4900–4300 BCE as an example of the Urn culture in Andorra. The model of small settlements began to evolve to complex urbanism during the Bronze Age. Metallurgical items of iron, ancient coins, and reliquaries can be found in the ancient sanctuaries scattered around the country.
The sanctuary of Roc de les Bruixes is perhaps the most important archeological complex of this age in Andorra, located in the parish of Canillo, about the rituals of funerals, ancient scripture and engraved stone murals.

Iberian and Roman Andorra

The inhabitants of the valleys were traditionally associated with the Iberians and historically located in Andorra as the Iberian tribe Andosins or Andosini during the 7th and 2nd centuries BC. Influenced by the Celtic, Aquitanian, Basque and Iberian languages, the locals developed some current toponyms. Early writings and documents relating to this group of people goes back to the second century BC by the Greek writer Polybius in his Histories during the Punic Wars.
Some of the most significant remains of this era are the Castle of the Roc d'Enclar, l'Anxiu in Les Escaldes and Roc de L'Oral in Encamp.
The presence of Roman influence is recorded from the 2nd century BCE to the 5th century CE. The places with the most Roman presence are in Camp Vermell in Sant Julià de Lòria, and in some places in Encamp and in the Roc d'Enclar. People continued trading, mainly with wine and cereals, with the Roman cities of Urgellet and across Segre through the via romana Strata Ceretana.

Visigoths and Carolingians

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Andorra came under the influence of the Visigoths, the Kingdom of Toledo, and the Diocese of Urgell. The Visigoths remained in the valleys for 200 years, during which time Christianity spread. When the Muslim Empire of Al-Andalus replaced the ruling Visigoths in most of the Iberian Peninsula, Andorra was under the jurisdiction of the Franks.
Tradition holds that Charles the Great granted a charter to the Andorran people for a contingent of 5,000 soldiers under the command of Marc Almugaver, in return for fighting against the Moors near Porté-Puymorens.
Andorra remained part of the Frankish Marca Hispanica, the buffer zone between the Frankish Empire and the Muslim territories, Andorra being part of the territory ruled by the Count of Urgell and eventually the bishop of the Diocese of Urgell. Tradition also holds that it was guaranteed by the son of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, writing the Carta de Poblament or a local municipal charter.
The first document that mentions Andorra as a territory is the Acta de Consagració i Dotació de la Catedral de la Seu d'Urgell. The document, dated 839, depicts the six old parishes of the Andorran valleys that made up the country's administrative division.
In 988, Count Borrell II of Urgell gave the Andorran valleys to the Diocese of Urgell in exchange for land in Cerdanya. Since then, the bishop of Urgell, based in Seu d'Urgell, has been co-prince of Andorra.

Middle Ages: The Paréages and founding of the co-principality

Before 1095, Andorra had no military protection, and the bishop of Urgell, who knew that the count of Urgell wanted to reclaim the Andorran valleys, asked the Lord of Caboet for help and protection. In 1095, the lord of Caboet and the bishop of Urgell signed under oath a declaration of their co-sovereignty over Andorra. Arnalda de Caboet, daughter of Arnau of Caboet, married the viscount of Castellbò. Their daughter, Ermessenda de Castellbò, married the count of Foix, Roger-Bernard II. Roger-Bernard II and Ermessenda shared rule over Andorra with the bishop of Urgell.
In the 13th century, a military dispute arose between the bishop of Urgell and the count of Foix as aftermath of the Cathar Crusade. The conflict was resolved in 1278 with the mediation of the king of Aragon, Peter III, between the bishop and the count, by the signing of the first paréage, which provided that Andorra's sovereignty be shared between the count of Foix and the bishop of Urgell, in the Principality of Catalonia. This gave the principality its territory and political form.
A second paréage was signed in 1288 after a dispute when the count of Foix ordered the construction of a castle in Roc d'Enclar. The document was ratified by the noble notary Jaume Orig of Puigcerdà, and construction of military structures in the country was prohibited.
In 1364, the political organisation of the country named the figure of the syndic as representative of the Andorrans to their co-princes, making possible the creation of local departments. After being ratified by Bishop Francesc Tovia and Count John I, the Consell de la Terra or Consell General de les Valls was founded in 1419, the second oldest parliament in Europe. The syndic Andreu d'Alàs and the General Council organised the creation of the Justice Courts in 1433 with the co-princes and the collection of taxes like foc i lloc.
Although there are remains of ecclesiastical works dating before the 9th century, Andorra developed exquisite Romanesque Art during the 9th through 14th centuries, particularly in the construction of churches, bridges, religious murals and statues of the Virgin and Child. Nowadays, the Romanesque buildings that form part of Andorra's cultural heritage stand out in a remarkable way, with an emphasis on Església de Sant Esteve, Sant Joan de Caselles, Església de Sant Miquel d'Engolasters, Sant Martí de la Cortinada and the medieval bridges of Margineda and Escalls among many others.
The Catalan Pyrenees were embryonic of the Catalan language at the end of the 11th century. Andorra was influenced by this language, which was adopted locally decades before it expanded to the rest of the Crown of Aragon.
The local economy during the Middle Ages was based on livestock, agriculture, furs and weavers. Later, at the end of the 11th century, the first iron foundries began to appear in Northern Parishes like Ordino, much appreciated by the master artisans who developed the art of the forges, an important economic activity in the country from the 15th century.

16th to 18th centuries

In 1601 the [|Tribunal de Corts] was created as a result of Huguenot rebellions in France, Inquisition courts coming from Spain and witchcraft-related beliefs native to the area, in the context of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation.
With the passage of time, the co-title to Andorra passed to the kings of Navarre. After Henry III of Navarre became king of France, he issued an edict in 1607 that established the head of the French state and the bishop of Urgell as Co-Princes of Andorra, a political arrangement that still holds.
During 1617, communal councils form the sometent to deal with the rise of bandolerisme and the Consell de la Terra was defined and structured in terms of its composition, organisation and competences current today.
Andorra continued with the same economic system that it had during the 12th–14th centuries with a large production of metallurgy and with the introduction of tobacco circa 1692 and import trade. In 1371 and 1448, the co-princes ratified the fair of Andorra la Vella, the most important annual national festival commercially ever since.
File:Building_in_Ordino._Andorra_216.jpg|right|thumb|Manor house of the Rossell family in Ordino, Casa Rossell, built in 1611. The family also owned the largest ironwork forges in Andorra as Farga Rossell and Farga del Serrat.
The country had a unique and experienced guild of weavers, Confraria de Paraires i Teixidors, in Escaldes-Engordany. Founded in 1604, it took advantage of the local thermal waters. By this time, the country was characterised by the social system of prohoms and casalers, deriving from the tradition of pubilla and hereu.
Three centuries after its foundation, the Consell de la Terra located its headquarters and the Tribunal de Corts in Casa de la Vall in 1702. The manor house built in 1580 served as a noble fortress of the Busquets family. Inside the parliament was placed the Closet of the Six Keys, representative of each Andorran parish, where the Andorran constitution and other documents and laws were later kept.
In both the Reapers' War and the War of the Spanish Succession, the Andorran people supported the rest of the Catalans who ultimately saw most of their rights suppressed in 1716 as a consequence of the promulgation of the Nueva Planta decrees. In order to avoid the application of Nueva Planta to Andorra, the Bishop of Urgell, Simeó de Guinda, convinced the new Spanish Bourbon authorities that the Valleys of Andorra had always been neutral and unrelated to the Principality of Catalonia, resulting in the definitive political separation of Andorra from Catalonia. Another direct reaction to the events was the promotion of Catalan writings in Andorra, with cultural works such as the Book of Privileges, Manual Digest by Antoni Fiter i Rossell or the Polità andorrà by Antoni Puig.