Earliest Andorran map by native Antoni Puig revealed in 1797 Politar manuscript

Among the curiosities in the volume of the Politar that collector Jordi Alcobé lent to the Consell General in March is a previously unpublished map drawn by Antoni Puig — the earliest known map of Andorra produced by a native hand. The sheet appears as a sketch in a manuscript Puig titled Manual Digest de les Valls de Andorra, dated 1797; the manuscript is in fact a third version of Puig’s Politar Andorrà, originally composed in 1764. Historian Francesc Rodríguez has X‑rayed the volume and will present his findings to the Consell General. The manuscript has been restored and deposited at the National Archive, where it can be consulted online.

The sketch is significant for three reasons. It is the first map of the Valls Neutres signed by an Andorran; earlier maps concentrated on the valleys were produced by outsiders, notably the Carte géographique de la Vallée d’Andorre by French engineer Nicholas Lengelée around 1774. It is likely the draft Puig and the commissioner Francisco de Zamora used when they climbed Casamanya in September 1788 to refine the definitive, more detailed map that is now preserved in Madrid alongside Zamora’s travel dossier. And it had not been seen publicly until Alcobé’s recent deposit of the Politar, which revealed the sketch within the 1797 revision.

As a working draft the map is rough and contains noticeable errors. Rodríguez notes it is disoriented: Puig places “ponent” (west) to the south and “tremuntana” (north) to the west, and the windrose locates north at west. The sheet also shows confusion between latitude and longitude and places the county of Foyx (spelled with a y) in an arbitrary position. These inaccuracies mark Puig as a well‑intentioned but approximate cartographer; the mistakes are corrected in the final version.

The sketch treats the Spanish side of the border summarily — only Arcavell, Civís, Ministrell and Aós appear — and omits the Segre valley entirely. By contrast, the Madrid map records the route from la Seu to Puigcerdà in detail and devotes greater attention to the French side, an area of particular interest to Zamora. The Valira river itself is not named on Puig’s sketch.

Despite its shortcomings, the sheet is notably precise in locating settlements, quarters, hamlets, bridges and bordes. Villages and places shown include Sant Julià, Masdelins, Fomtaneda, Canòlich, Canillo, la Costa, Ransol, Sol‑Deu, Vila, Encamp, the Cortals, Meritxell, Ordino, Ansalonga, la Cortinada, Llorts, Entremesaigües, Ràmio and Fontverd, among others. Small quirks underline its draft character: a locality given as Solana on the Zamora map appears as Devessa (with two s’s) on Puig’s sheet, and the page is patched with paper fragments where the original space ran out, with annotations continuing across repairs.

Above these particular defects, the sketch’s principal value is clear: it is the first map of Andorra drawn by a native of the valleys. It may lack the cartographic precision and the scientific method of Lengelée’s work, but it provides a recognisable, informative picture of the country at the end of the 18th century and of how its leading local figures perceived their land.