INVENTORIES OF THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE OF THE VALL D'ARAN

Throughout 2024 and 2025, we have been working on updating the Architectural Heritage of the Aran Valley. It has been a long and complex process, in which we have progressed through a series of successive phases. Starting with site visits to the various assets scattered throughout the valley (churches, traditional houses, bridges, fountains, washhouses, bordas...), we then proceeded to classify all this graphic material and draft detailed records for each element. Simultaneously, we conducted historical and bibliographical research on each one. Finally, we had to locate the georeferences and precise locations of all these assets.

The multidisciplinary editorial team consisted of: Josep Maria Fortià and Raimon Bustos, responsible for site visits and fieldwork; Laia Torres, an Art History student, in charge of text coordination; Rosa Maria Gil, historian and lead of documentary research; Pau Giralt, organizer of itineraries and visits; and Carme Calafat and Joan Solà, environmental technicians and experts in geographic information systems.

Captivated by the spirit of the Pyrenees, we immersed ourselves in the architecture and landscape of the Aran Valley. We worked in the northernmost part of the valley, on the banks of the Garona River, the only Catalan river that flows into the Atlantic. We also conducted fieldwork in Bossòst and Les, on the same bank of the Garona, as well as in Bausen and Canejan, mountain villages. We observed that Aranese architecture draws from Gascon typologies and carries aromas and flavors of French lands with Atlantic resonances.

In these lands, we discovered traces of an era when the valley remained disconnected from Catalonia for months, and its natural outlet was to the north. We also enjoyed the cultured and European architecture of the early 20th century, with civic buildings such as the Old Casino of Les or the Caixa de Pensions buildings, designed by the architect from Osona, Josep Maria Pericas—cultured buildings rich in architectural style.