Soldeu

The name Soldeu is older than the Romans; the linguist Joan Coromines linked it to Iberian place names such as Salduie, the ancient name of Zaragoza, and possibly to Basque words for "horse" and "road". For centuries it was a tiny herding settlement high in the parish of Canillo. The traveller Zamora, who stayed there in September 1788 on the way to look for iron rings that Louis the Pious was said to have fixed on the mountain of Juclar as a pledge of Andorra's liberties, found six to twenty houses, a very small chapel dependent on Canillo and much livestock, which was sent down to winter in the Urgell. In 1838 it had about a hundred inhabitants; in 1866, eight or ten houses.

From the start of the 20th century until the 1930s the road from France ended here, and Soldeu was the only village in Andorra with a French telegraph station. For people in the valleys it was the last village in the country and almost the end of the world.

Skiing changed everything. In 1963 three families — the Barós, Salvans and Torrallardonas — opened ski runs above the village, later known as Soldeu–El Tarter, and in 1965 the General Council declared skiing Andorra's national sport. The parish of Canillo and the bank Crèdit Andorrà became the main shareholders of the operating company, which later merged with Pas de la Casa–Grau Roig to form Grandvalira. Apartment blocks, hotels, shops and bars followed, with a whole new district around the lift station.

Modern Soldeu's culture is ski culture. The Avet and Àliga courses above the village have brought World Cup alpine racing: women's races in 2012 and 2016, and in March 2019 the season-ending World Cup finals. The ski school, with many native English-speaking instructors, has won awards for its teaching, and in summer the same slopes and valleys fill with walkers and golfers.

The village belongs to Canillo, the parish regarded as the religious centre of Andorra, home of the sanctuary of Our Lady of Meritxell, the country's patron saint, and of Sant Joan de Caselles, one of the best-preserved Romanesque churches in the Pyrenees. The parish keeps a deeply rooted Carnival, also called the Harlequin Festival, with costumes hung with bells, and a midsummer festival with a sheepdog contest. Its folklore includes El buner d'Ordino, the legend of a bagpiper from Ordino who, on his way to a festival in Canillo, was chased up a tree by wolves and scared them off with his playing.

Catalan is the native language, but in winter English is heard as often: Soldeu is popular with British and Irish visitors, and many shops and restaurants work in English. It is a more family-orientated resort than Pas de la Casa on the far side of the pass.

Soldeu had 622 inhabitants in 2022, a small permanent population for a place that fills with skiers in winter. The village sits at about 1,710 metres on a slope facing the point where the Incles valley meets the Valira, and the top of its ski area reaches about 2,580 metres.

Life follows the seasons. Through the winter the economy is the ski area — lifts, ski and snowboard schools, equipment shops, hotels, bars and restaurants. In summer the village is quieter, serving walkers heading into the mountains and visitors on their way between Andorra la Vella and France. The national bus links it with the capital in one direction and the French border at Pas de la Casa in the other.

There is no taxi rank in the village; the nearest is in Andorra la Vella, about 17 km down the valley, which is also the hub for buses to the rest of the country and abroad.

The traditional food is Catalan mountain cooking, hearty and built for cold weather. One of the most popular dishes is blood sausage with pale beans, and trinxat — potatoes, cabbage and pork, a dish of the Pyrenees, principally Andorra and the neighbouring Cerdanya and Alt Urgell — is one of the country's typical dishes. Its name means "chopped", and it is sometimes served with salt herring.

Cured pork, known as embotits, and botifarra sausage are staples of the mountain table, and wild mushrooms are prized in Catalan cooking. For dessert, mel i mató is fresh mató cheese with honey, and crema catalana a set cream of egg yolk, milk and sugar.

Because Soldeu lives from tourism, its restaurants cater to visitors and offer a wide range of cooking from around the world as well as the local dishes. On the slopes, the restaurants beside the ski schools at the top of the gondola, about 2,250 metres up, are where skiers stop to eat; in the evening the bars of the village take over.