From Your Girona Holiday Accommodation Visit The Vall De Boi

It's that time of year once again to book your Girona holiday accommodation and for

a change take a look at the Vall de Boi in the northern region of Spain in the Catalonia area. Vall de Boi is a narrow valley with steep sides; it is also a small municipality which lies in the province of Lleida in the Pyrenees.

Vall de Boi is best known for its nine Romanesque churches, making it an area with the highest concentration of this type of architecture in Europe. Due to this concentration UNESCO designated this area a World Heritage Site on November 30th 2000. If you are up for a little skiing, the highest ski resort in the Pyrenees is situated at Boi Taull which borders on the Estany de Sant Maurici National Park.

Besides the churches this small valley is home to a large number of castles but sadly they are in poor condition. This is due to its turbulent history starting when the valley first belonged to the country of Toulouse which in turn was joined to the County of Ribagorza. The valley came under the control of the County of Pallars in the 11th century only to be annexed by the Kingdom of Aragon sometime in the 12th century, all of which gave this small valley a strategic position. For some reason The Moorish conquest didn't reach this far but the region didn't have its first Christian counties until the 9th century.

In the middle ages the small population of the valley produced large quantities of silver for the local dignitaries encouraging them to join the Catalonia campaign to recover Barbastro and Zaragoza. Although much of this new found wealth went into the construction of a number of Romanesque Churches, a new architectural style, between the 11th and 14th centuries. What made this type of construction standout is the bell towers and elaborate stonework. If you visit the National Museum of Art of Catalonia in Barcelona you can see some of the wall paintings extracted from these churches.

When you visit this area pay attention to the number of churches from the 11th and 12th centuries that are still in use to this day near to Girona holiday accommodation. As we said earlier, nine churches were included in the World Heritage Site which are Sant Climent and Santa Maria in Taull, Sant Joan in Boi, Sant Feliu in Barruera, Santa Maria de l'Assumpcio de Coll, Santa Eulalia in Erill la Vall, Santa Maria de Cardet, la Nativitat de la Mare de Deu in Durro, also near Durro is the hermitage of Sant Quire.

While staying in your accommodation in the Vall de Boi besides the nine churches we just mentioned there are ruins of other Romanesque religious buildings you can explore. Once you finish with the churches explore the surrounding area and the best way to do this is on foot along the well marked trails. You will be amazed at what you will come across on your sojourn in this ancient part of Spain.

by: Sue Parker

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