Architect Defends Exposed Stone Facade of Andorra's Casa de la Vall

Architect Enric Dilmé has defended the choice to preserve the exposed stone facade of Casa de la Vall as it appeared following its comprehensive 1962 renovation, rather than restoring the original plaster coating.

Dilmé, who led the recent interior rehabilitation of the historic building alongside restorer Eudald Guillamet, acknowledged the appeal of reverting to the plaster that covered the facade for the structure's first 382 years. "I was the first tempted by the idea of plastering Casa de la Vall. It would have been like resurrecting a dinosaur," he said, questioning whether such a move was necessary or if it would erase a significant chapter of the monument's history—the post-1962 version, now its most familiar and widely photographed image.

The 1962 overhaul, commissioned by then-Síndic Julià Reig and carried out by Catalan architects Ros de Ramis and Josep Caneda, introduced the exposed stone look amid a mid-20th-century trend Dilmé calls "petrophilia"—a fixation on bare stone as the authentic essence of mountain architecture. Prior to that, plaster was standard for status-symbol farmhouses like Casa de la Vall, offering practical insulation against Andorra's harsh weather. Churches, too, were typically limewashed and painted inside and out, while simpler structures like sheds went untreated.

The recent project focused solely on the interior, as mandated by the Síndic's office. Dilmé noted the facade showed no damage from lacking plaster. He highlighted the 1962 intervention's deeper changes: adding a gun slit for symmetry near the Vall rock, opening a rear door and ground-level windows, reinforcing floors with hidden metal beams, constructing a new Catalan-vault monumental staircase—then an experimental technique seen only at Encamp's Hotel Rosaleda—and building the current hemicycle to evoke a modern parliament, far removed from vernacular traditions.

Faced with these alterations, Dilmé and Guillamet weighed whether to reverse them entirely. Few alive recall the pre-1962 appearance, and undoing the facade could raise inconsistencies, such as with the neighboring Consell General building, clad in stone as a nod to Casa de la Vall. Dilmé extended the debate to Romanesque sites like Santa Coloma church, stripped of plaster in the 1980s, or Santa Eulàlia d'Encamp, altered as late as 1989.

"There is no urgency to plaster the walls, given no associated pathologies and the significant cost," Dilmé concluded. He advocated restraint, cautioning against pendulum swings in restoration trends. Future generations, he added, will judge based on their own perspectives. The building reopened last December.