Just a 10-15-minute drive north of Andorra la Vella, this town of around 4,900 is surrounded by a UNESCO World Heritage Biosphere Reserve and is home to a fantastic medieval old quarter dating back to at least the 8th century. Apart from just wandering its delightful cobblestone streets, one of the main attractions is the early 17th-century Casa de Areny-Planolit, a museum centred around the manse of an important local family. Others include the principality's postal museum; the Sant Jordi religious art museum; the La Cortinada Nature Centre; a 16th-entury mill turned into a cultural centre; a pair of lovely Romanesque churches; and the "Museum of Microminiatures," a collection of itsy-bitsy art (as in, for example, painted on grains of rice and salt, which you have to view through a miscroscope) created by a Ukraininan called Nicolaĭ Siadristy and a Chinese dude by the name of Liu Shouiben (there's also a bunch of Russian matrioshka nesting dolls here).

 

Matthew Ross

 

 

 

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