23 August 26
La Vall de Boí
On Sunday two weeks ago we went on an excursion with Jennifer and Harald north into the Pyrenees, Harald having rented a car for the day trip. Our destination was the Vall de Boí, which is a steep-sided valley that is noted for its concentration of Early Romanesque churches: there are nine of these in total in the valley, and the location has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I first heard about the Vall de Boí in a two part episode of El Foraster, a series which proves to be a good guide to finding interesting villages to visit in Catalunya. We went inside two of the churches. The first of these was the church Santa Eulàlia d’Erill la Vall, which is next to the visitors’ center for the site. I went all the way up the six stories of its bell tower. The second church, a bit farther up the valley, was Sant Climent de Taüll which is the largest and best preserved of the churches in the valley. At left is a sketch of the church viewed from the south.
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