This article will provide information on the list of the 7 states/province in Andorra, a brief history of Andorra and also provide answers to questions with regard to Andorra.
Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra (Catalan: Principat d'Andorra), also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra (Catalan: Principat de les Valls d'Andorra), is a sovereign landlocked microstate in Southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. Andorra claims it is the last independent survivor of the Marca Hispanica, the buffer states created by Charlemagne to keep the Islamic Moors from advancing into Christian France. Tradition holds that Charlemagne granted a charter to the Andorran people in return for their fighting the Moors. In the 9th century, Charlemagne's grandson, Charles the Bald, named the Count of Urgell as overlord of Andorra. A descendant of the count later gave the lands to the Diocese of Urgell. In the 11th century, fearing military action by neighboring lords, the Bishop of Urgell placed himself under the protection of the Lord of Caboet, a Catalan nobleman. Later, the Count of Foix became heir to the Lord of Caboet through marriage in 1208, and a dispute arose between the Occitan Count and the Catalan bishop over Andorra. In 1278, the conflict was resolved by the signing of a pareage (pariatges), which provided that Andorra's sovereignty be shared between the Count of Foix and the Bishop of La Seu d'Urgell (Catalonia). The pareage, a feudal institution recognizing the principle of equality of rights shared by two rulers, gave the small state its territory and political form. Andorra's borders have remained unchanged since 1278. Andorra was briefly annexed to the Crown of Aragon twice, in 1396 and 1512. Andorra did not officially participate in World War I, although there were three Andorran volunteers who fought: Valentí Naudi, Josep Estany and René Huguet. North American newspapers in 1958 claimed that Andorra had declared war on Germany in 1914 but failed to sign a peace treaty until 1958, and this claim has appeared in later sources, but there appears to be no contemporary evidence of such declaration. In 2014, the news outlet Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra investigated the 1958 claim and could find no documentation of any original declaration of war. Historian Pere Cavero could only find an exchange of letters between the German consul in Marseille and the Catalan Ombudsman, where the former asks if there is a state of war with Andorra and the latter responds they could find nothing in their archive to indicate this. In 1933, France occupied Andorra as a result of social unrest before elections. On July 12, 1934, an adventurer named Boris Skossyreff issued a proclamation in Urgel, declaring himself Boris I, sovereign prince of Andorra, simultaneously declaring war on the Bishop of Urgell. He was arrested by Spanish authorities on July 20 and ultimately expelled from Spain. From 1936 to 1940, a French detachment was garrisoned in Andorra to prevent encroachment as a result of the Spanish Civil War and Francoist Spain. During World War II, Andorra remained neutral and was an important smuggling route from Spain into France. The French Resistance used Andorra as part of their route to get downed airmen out of France. In 1943, Andorra carried out its first execution since the 19th century: Antoni Arenis was executed for double fratricide by firing squad because a trained executioner was unavailable to operate the legal method, by garrote. Long an impoverished land with little contact with any nations other than adjoining France and Spain, Andorra, after World War II, achieved considerable prosperity through a developing tourist industry. That development, abetted by improvements in transport and communications, has tended to break down Andorra's isolation and to bring Andorrans into the mainstream of European history. Public demands for democratic reforms led to the extension of the franchise to women in the 1970s and to the creation of new and more fully autonomous organs of government in the early 1980s. Andorra formally became a parliamentary democracy in May 1993 following approval of a new constitution by a popular referendum in March 1993. The new constitution retained the French and Spanish co-princes although with reduced and narrowly defined powers. Civil rights were greatly expanded, including the legalisation of political parties and the provision for an independent judiciary. Andorra joined a customs union with the European Communities (now the European Union) in 1991 and was admitted to the United Nations on 28 July 1993. It became a member of the Council of Europe in 1994. The country has been seeking ways to improve its export potential and increase its economic ties with its European neighbours. The financial services sector of the economy is highly important because of Andorra's status as a tax haven and its banking secrecy laws.
Andorra consists of seven communities known as parishes (Catalan: parròquies, singular – parròquia). Until relatively recently, it had only six parishes; the seventh, Escaldes-Engordany, was created in 1978.
This is a town and a province in Andorra which occupies 12 kilometer square and 4.6 mile square of the country.
This is a town and a province in Andorra which occupies 121 kilometer square and 47 mile square of the country.
This is a town and a province in Andorra which occupies 74 kilometer square and 29 mile square of the country.
This is a town and a province in Andorra which occupies 47 kilometer square and 18 mile square of the country.
This is a town and a province in Andorra which occupies 65 kilometer square and 25 mile square of the country.
This is a town and a province in Andorra which occupies 89 kilometer square and 34 mile square of the country.
This is a town and a province in Andorra which occupies 60 kilometer square and 23 mile square of the country.
There are 7 states in and 10 cities in Andorra.
Andorra has more than a million people, between 100,000 and 1 million people, and 3 cities with between 10,000 and 100,000 people.
The largest city in Andorra is Andorra la Vella, with a population of 20,430 people.
Andorra has seven parishes and towns which include:
- Andorra la Vieja
- Canillo
- Encamp
- Escaldes-Engordany
- La Massana
- Ordino
- Sant Julia de Loria
The capital city name of Andorra is Andorra la Vella
Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra (Catalan: Principat d'Andorra), also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra (Catalan: Principat de les Valls d'Andorra), is a sovereign landlocked microstate in Southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France.
- Andorra produces a lot of tobacco
- It is the 16th smallest country in the world by land, and the 11th smallest by population
- Andorra is the world’s only co-principality (a principality is a place ruled by a prince e.g. Monaco is another example of a principality country). Andorra, however, is a co-principality. This means that there are two princes who jointly share the title of prince. It will interest you to know that neither of the two princes are from Andorra (one of the prince is the President of France, Emmanuel Macron and the other co-prince is the Bishop of Urgell, who is currently Joan Enric Vives Sicília)
- Andorra is the only country in the world with Catalan as its official language
- Andorra has never been in a war in almost 1,000 years
- Andorra has no national bank and has never had its own currency (they use Euro as their currency)
- Andorra is not a member of most of the major European associations. Even though it uses the Euro, the country is not technically part of the Eurozone
- Andorra la Vella is the highest capital city in Europe (at an elevation of 1,023 meters which is 3356 feet), there is no higher elevation capital in all of Europe. And it is the 10th highest city of any kind in Europe, and boasts a population over 10,000
- The flag of Andorra is strikingly similar to the flags of Chad, Romania, and Moldova
- With a life expectancy of 82.9 years, Andorra has the 8th highest life expectancy in the world
- With over 10,000,000 visitors per year and a population of only 77,000, Andorra has the most visitors in the world per capital
- Even though the United Nations was founded soon after the end of World War II, Andorra didn’t join the UN until 1993 which is 48 years after the creation of UN
- In order to prevent the Spanish Civil War from spreading into Andorra, France sent a force to occupy the country in 1936
- Despite having been represented at every Olympic games since 1976, Andorra has never won an Olympic medal
- Andorra was neutral in World War II
Officially named the Principality of Andorra (in Catalan, Principat d'Andorra), as it is ruled by two Co-Princes – the President of France and the Bishop of Urgell in Spain, however despite its unique status Andorra is still a country in its own right.
The country is most famous for tourism and tobacco. Both French and Spanish currencies are valid in Andorra, while its own dinar coins are meant only for collectors.