Admiring Andorra Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pyrenees

The country is situated in the eastern Pyrenees bound by the land of sun and the siesta, Spain, to the south and the land of romance and gastronomy, France, to the north. With such great cultures surrounding this small nation you'd be forgiven for thinking it may not have much culture of its own.

Whilst it is true that there are great influences from the Spanish and French on everyday Andorran life, they still have a unique Catalan approach to life evident in their folk music and literature.

Answer: False

Catalonia, another region which speaks Catalan is an autonomous region in the north-east of Spain which forms the southern border of Andorra. The capital of the Catalonian community is the city of Barcelona, famous for its successful football (soccer) team amongst other things.

Catalan has its roots in the Romance languages and has great influence from the Spanish language in particular. An example of a sentence in Catalan is from the title of their national anthem, "El Gran Carlemany, Mon Pare", which translates into English as, "The Great Charlemagne, my Father". Interestingly though, the Andorran national motto is given in Latin, "Virtus Unita Fortior", which means, "Strength United is Stronger". The English language has borrowed a few words from Catalan including the fruit, aubergine (in America, eggplant), characterised by its striking purple skin.

Answer: Coma Pedrosa

Just shy of 3000m, Coma Pedrosa is the highest point in the Andorran mountainous terrain. As the country has a relatively high altitude its climate, instead of being wholly temperate, receives a greater amount of snow and has, on average, lower summer temperatures than other countries of the same latitude.

The mountains provide a thriving skiing scene with Andorran resorts being popular throughout all seasons. This tourism is crucial to the national income of the nation.

Answer: Parishes

Just like the US state of Louisiana, Andorra is divided into parishes and the seven parishes are: Andorra la Vella, Canillo, Encamp, Escaldes-Engordany, La Massana, Ordino and Sant Julià de Lòria. Each of these parishes has its own picturesque attractions and holiday resorts which usually involve skiing. Ordino for instance houses the Sorteny National Park whilst Escaldes-Engordany is the venue for an annual festival of jazz.

Answer: None of these

Andorra has no coastline whatsoever as it is fully landlocked by neighbours Spain and France who are also responsible for protecting the small European nation. They need to be protected as they have no military force of their own.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet and for those who haven't read 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' here is the end of the lengthy poem which seems very inappropriate for the landlocked Andorra!:

"The Mariner, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone: and now the Wedding-Guest
Turned from the bridegroom's door.

He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man,
He rose the morrow morn."

Answer: Iberian Peninsula

The location of Iberia in Europe is to the far south west and it is made up from the countries and territories of Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Gibraltar and French Cerdagne. Just to put into perspective the size of Andorra, the nation does not even account for 1% of the peninsula, whilst Spain constitutes 85% of Iberia! Even still, Andorra isn't the smallest nation in Europe and in fact there are five nations that are yet smaller.

These five are Malta, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco and the smallest country in the world, Vatican City.

Answer: Arinsal

Arinsal located in the parish of La Massana is a very popular ski resort. This is especially so amongst those, like myself, who haven't really got much of an idea of what they are doing; and are more likely to end up fighting with a tree than making it to the bottom of the slope.

Despite this there are more challenging slopes for those a little more at ease with low coefficients of friction! La Massana is home to the five highest peaks in Andorra including Coma Pedrosa which nearly reaches an altitude of 3000ft above sea level.

Answer: 13th Century

Andorra la Vella became the principal city of the country in 1278 and incidentally, this was the year of their independence. The history of the Andorran capital does indeed go back further than this with the area being protected by Charlemagne, the King of the Franks, in the late 700s.

A piece of information I came across that I found interesting is that the city doesn't have an airport! According to Wikipedia the nearest airports are roughly three hours away in French and Spanish cities such as Perpignan and Barcelona.

Answer: Sant Julià de Lòria

Sant Julià de Lòria is one of the seven parishes that combine to make up the mountainous nation of Andorra. Sant Julià de Lòria is also the southernmost parish sharing a border with the north of Spain. Situated in the region is the bust of an Episcopal Vegeur, Francesc Cairat (1936-1937). In the Catalonian and Andorran regions a veguer was in charge of a vegueria (a feudal territory).

Answer: Valira

The Valira begins at two main sources similar to the geography of the Nile but with a different orientation. The names of these two sources are Valira del Nord and Valira d'Orient. These combine at a confluence which is close to the capital city, Andorra la Vella. Furthermore, the Valira is simultaneously a tributary to the river Segre.

This is remarkably like the Nile, whereby there are two main tributaries, the Blue Nile and the White Nile which meet near a capital city, Khartoum (Sudan).