Andorra, a valley in the Eastern Pyrenees, between the French department of Ariège and the Spanish province of Lerida, part of Catalonia. It is inclosed by mountains, through which its river, the Balira, breaks to join the Segre at Urgel; and its inaccessibility naturally fits it for being the seat of the interesting little republic which here holds a kind of semi-independent position between France and Spain. Area (divided into six communes), 175 sq. m. Pop. 6800 according to an actual enumeration made by Bladé in 1875; but it has since been estimated by others as high as 15,000. The former abundant forests have been much thinned for fuel; there is much excellent pasture; vines and fruit-trees flourish on the lower grounds; and the mountains contain rich iron-mines, unwrought lead supplies, and mineral springs. The chief occupations are agriculture, cattle-breeding, trade in wood, charcoal, and wool, and especially smuggling. Andorra is said to have been declared a free state by Charlemagne. In 1278 the counts of Foix, afterwards kings of Navarre, obtained the sovereignty, reserving the rights of the Bishop of Urgel in Catalonia; and with Henry IV. the feudal superiority fell to France. Now the state stands under the common protectorate of France and of the Bishop of Urgel. The republic is governed by a sovereign council of twenty-four members, chosen by certain heads of houses, and the council elects a president for four years, a syndic, under whom is a second syndic. There are two criminal judges called viguiers ('vicars'), of whom the first is appointed by France, and the second by the Bishop of Urgel. There is also a civil judge appointed by France and the Bishop of Urgel alternately, and there is an appeal from his judgment to the Court of Cassation at Paris, or to the Episcopal College at Urgel. In criminal cases, there is no appeal from the court of the republic itself. The revenue of the state is derived from lands and from some inconsiderable taxes. A sum of 960 francs is paid annually to France, and 425 francs to the Bishop of Urgel. Since 1882, the interests of France in the state are represented by a permanent delegate. The Andorrans are good-natured, hard-working mountaineers of the Catalonian stock. The capital is Andorra la Vieja (pop. 600).
See a French work by Berthel (1879) and a Spanish one by Osonas (1896); Deverell's All Round Spain (1884); articles on Andorra in Royal Scottish Geog. Mag., 1895, and Revue Encyclopédique, 1898.