Not only is Andorra famous for its skiing, its scenery and its hospitality, but the principality is also as popular as it is in large part because of all the Andorra museums. It’s always fun exploring museums in other countries and there are 25 museums in Andorra, making it one of the countries with the most museums per capita.
Here, in this guide to the main museums in Andorra, we explain which Andorra museums are worth visiting and how to best fit them into the agenda of your next Andorra holiday.
Andorra activities: How many museums are in Andorra?
According to the UNESCO Report on Museums Around the World, there are 25 museums in Andorra right now. Some of them are more famous, like the Thyssen Museum Andorra, while others are a bit more niche, like the Miniature Museum Andorra.
Here, we take a look at 10 of the main museums in Andorra worth visiting:
- The National Automobile Museum: With as many as 80 vehicles on display, the National Automobile Museum is one of the most impressive museums in Andorra, and it is even ranked number one on TripAdvisor. It shows how cars have changed over the course of history, and their context in the principality.
- The Casa de Areny-Plandolit: Also called the Areny-Plandolit House, this is one of the most famous Andorra museums. It is a nobleman’s manor house of the Andorra of old, which dates from the 17th century and which has been converted into a museum to show what Andorran society used to look like.
- The Casa Cristo Ethnographic Museum: Another site that features on the list of historical museums is the Casa Cristo Ethnographic Museum, a house that aims to show how the Andorran people lived in the 19th and 20th century. Containing items that have been untouched since 1947, this is a special place.
- The Casa de la Vall: Located in the centre of Andorra la Vella, the country’s capital, there is a perfectly preserved 16th century manor house, which became the Andorran parliament. It is now a museum and allows you to learn about the politics and history of Andorra.
- The Miniature Museum Andorra: Curiously, there is a Miniature Museum Andorra, and this is certainly a unique experience. Mykola Syadristy is considered an elite miniature artist and several of his works are present here at the Miniature Museum Andorra, viewable only be microscope.
- The Reig Factory: There is an old tobacco factory, called the Reig Factory, that has been preserved and that shows visitors what it was like to work in this building, which was a driver of the Andorran economy when it was in operation from 1909 to 1957.
- The Thyssen Museum Andorra: If you’re in Andorra, you’ll have the chance to visit one of the world’s most significant private art collections, the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection which belongs to Baroness Carmen Thyssen and which is housed at the Thyssen Museum Andorra.
- The Andorra Electricity Museum: Given its name, this is quite a self-explanatory museum, but no less fascinating. By paying a visit, you’ll have the chance to peek inside the room that houses the generators behind Andorra’s electricity.
- The Farga Rossell: Andorra has had many important industries over the years, and the iron industry was once upon a time one of the most important. By stopping by the museum known as the Farga Rossell, you’ll be able to see one of the best-preserved examples of the region’s iron industry heritage.
- Escaldes-Engordany Art Center: The Escaldes-Engordany Art Center is another of the art museums in Andorra, housing works from both local and international artists. There is broad cultural programming at this centre, so there should be something for everyone.
Andorra museums per capita: Which country has the most museums per capita?
Given that Andorra has 25 museums, it boasts the second-most museums per capita of all countries in the world. It has been calculated that there are 324.7 Andorra museums per million inhabitants, based on the fact that the microstate has such a small population.
The country with the most museums per capita is Niue, a tiny island with just one museum but with 625 museums per million inhabitants if you extrapolate the data, as Landgeist has done.
For Andorra to be second in this ranking speaks to how surprising it is for such a small country to have as many as 25 museums in such a small space. But, as can be seen from the list of Andorra museums, there are so many different subjects worth exploring during a visit to Andorra.