CHURCH OF SANT MARTÍ DE LA CORTINADA

This Romanesque church, one of the most visited in Andorra, was built in the ^12th century and modified in the Baroque period in the ^17th and ^18th centuries. It has a beautiful bell tower and an apse, one of the largest in the Principality. Inside, the Baroque murals and altarpieces highlight the importance that La Cortinada had acquired. In 1967, frescoes dating from the late ^eleventh and early ^twelfth centuries were discovered behind a vault in a side chapel. Their bright and clear colors are dominated by red and ochre on the left side, while green and blue appear mostly on the right side. Other paintings were discovered in 1968. Together with the Sant Cerni de Nagol (Sant Julià de Lòria) mural paintings, this is the most interesting set of paintings to be seen in the Principality. They are attributed to an anonymous artist known as the "Master of the Cortinada", and the most outstanding ones are certainly those depicting the bishop Martin de Tours and the one depicting a phantasmagorical wolf with a two-pointed tongue. Sant Martí also has beautiful pieces of furniture, including a console and carved wooden benches from the ^17th century. One of the benches has the peculiarity of having a locker to keep the missals and a mobile back. The latter changed position when parishioners knelt on it and when village meetings were held so that all participants could face each other.