A valley listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004: 4,247 hectares of preserved Pyrenean landscape, around 10% of Andorra's territory, spanning four parishes.
The Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley is a vast natural and cultural site in south-eastern Andorra, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape in 2004. Covering 4,247 hectares, around 10% of the country's total area, it follows the basin of the Madriu river and spans the territory of four parishes: Encamp, Andorra la Vella, Sant Julià de Lòria and Escaldes-Engordany. It is the only entirely preserved valley in the Pyrenees, offering an exceptional testimony to how high-mountain pastoral and agricultural societies adapted to a harsh environment over more than a thousand years. The site retains many traces of this long human occupation: shepherds' huts (bordes), agricultural terraces, transhumance paths and forge remains, evidence of traditional resource use still legible in today's landscape. The valley is now a major hiking destination in Andorra, prized for its preserved mountain scenery.
