Description of the attraction
The Church of Sant Antoni del Prat del Campanar is an ancient temple located near the village of Arinsal on the way to the famous mountain resort of the same name. Actually, little has survived from the Romanesque temple built on this site in the 12th century. The avalanches that swept this slope in the XIII-XVII centuries practically razed it to the ground.
Already in the twentieth century, namely in 1969, archaeological excavations began to be carried out at this place, which turned out to be quite fruitful. Excavations ended in 1973. In 1975, the San Antoni Temple was rebuilt from the remains of Romanesque walls, two side walls with doors, corners and most of the apse. The reconstruction was supervised by the architect Pierre Countryri.
The church has a rectangular nave with a cone-shaped roof, which was rarely found in the valleys of the principality of Andorra, and a semicircular apse, decorated with beautiful pilasters and arches. As shown by archaeological excavations, the original temple had four apses, but only one of them was restored during reconstruction work.
In addition, during excavations near the southern wall, several skeletons and the foundation of the room were found, it is assumed that this was the foundation of the bell tower. Despite the fact that there were a lot of fragments of wall painting found during the excavations, they still did not give a complete picture of the image when they were added. Presumably these paintings belong to the XII-XIII century.
In 1983, the Rossel family, which also owned the church, added an extension to the southern wing during the reconstruction, turning it into their family crypt.
Although the church of Sant'Andres del Prat Campanar was rebuilt not so long ago, thanks to the quality work of modern architects-reenactors, it looks like a very ancient structure.
