
Església de Sant Esteve - Andorra la Vella, Andorra
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denben
N 42° 30.437 E 001° 31.292
31T E 378532 N 4707160
Located next to the Comú at the entrance to the old quarter, the church of Sant Esteve (St. Stephen) is the parish church of Andorra la Vella.
Waymark Code: WMQCAK
Location: Andorra
Date Posted: 02/03/2016
Views: 12
The present building is the result of various alterations and enlargements of the Romanesque church, the most important ones dating from the last century. Among these one should note the west door built by the architect J. Puig i Cadafalch.
Of the original 12th century church there only remains the semicircular apse, part of the walls of the nave and a small apse. The apse is the largest and the most richly decorated in sculptures of the Romanesque apses preserved in Andorra; it has two double slit windows and the quarter sphere roof is made of pumice stone. Outside, beneath the slate roof, there is a saw tooth frieze from one side to the other and below this another of blind arches, all in Lombard style; each of the arches is supported by a small table with geometrical decorations.
All the walls of the apse and the presbytery were decorated with murals, most probably of the 13th century, which are partially preserved in the National Art Museum of Catalonia. Iconographically they represent the most elaborate series in the Principality; the fragments preserved represent various scenes from the life of Jesus as well as figurative architecture and vegetable and geometrical motifs. The polychromatic beam which goes from one side of the apse to the other probably dates from the same period and must have supported a baldachin, now unfortunately lost.
Various baroque retables are kept inside: one dedicated to Saint John the Baptist (dated 1707), another to Saint Lucy, another to Holy Christ and the main retable dedicated to the patron saint, as well as the painting called "Quadro de les Ànimes" which also dates back to the 18th century.
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