Andorra to Publish Rafael Benet's 1955 Artistic Heritage Catalog Next Year

The Andorran Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports' Cultural Heritage Department is preparing to publish next academic year a compilation of art historian Rafael Benet's writings on the country's artistic heritage, centering on the first edition of his 1955 *Catàleg Monumental d’Andorra*, also known as the *Inventari i conservació del patrimoni artístic de les Valls*.

Commissioned by the General Council and the Initiative Syndicate, Benet compiled the 149-page handwritten manuscript between July and November 1955, with help from painter Manuel Humbert. It features illustrations, sketches, and photographs taken for the project by Valentí Claverol and Bartomeu Rebés. The ministry has signed a collaboration agreement with the Fundació Privada Valentí Claverol to include these images faithfully in the new volume, based on a digitized copy donated in 2018 by historian Jacint Berenguer, co-founder of the Fundació Rafael Benet.

The publication will also feature Benet's other writings from the 1950s and 1960s, along with transcriptions of correspondence linking him to local figures including Pere Canturri, Narcís Casal, and síndic Julià Reig. The project honors Benet's efforts in documenting, revaluing, and preserving Andorra's cultural assets.

The inventory opens with Benet's prescient observation on Gothic murals spared by traffickers, who targeted Romanesque panel paintings and portable Gothic art: these remnants, he argued, could form the core of a future National Museum. He advocated building such an institution around Andorra's Gothic legacy and proposed temporarily housing it in the former Natural History Museum pavilion in Ordino—opened by Xavier Rebés in the 1930s, closed in 1948, and now the National Auditorium.

Earlier publication attempts failed: planned for 1961, then 1965, and announced in 1969 by Casal i Vall as part of the *Monumenta Andorrana* collection, but never released.

Benet's work uncovers vivid details, such as an Arinsal legend of a Benedictine monastery tied to Anserall and buried by avalanche—a site locals called the "prat del campanar"—though he noted documents offered no confirmation. In the village, he described resident Martí crafting wooden shepherds' staffs and collars in a waning folk tradition worthy of museum display.

He provided the first verified attribution of the sacristy painting *Les ànimes* at Sant Pere Miquel del Fai archpriestal church to Barcelona painter Joan Casanovas, spotting the signature at the lower left with priest Pujol's assistance. A 1742 confraternity record describes donor Anton Moles's gift of the large oil, showing Saint Michael, Our Lady of Pity, Saint Anthony, Purgatory, and Moles in prayer.

The volume will highlight other treasures, including Rossell house engravings and the recently restored clock in the bishop's room at Casa de la Vall.