There are nine churches in the Vall de Boí listed by UNESCO, and the surprise is that they are not museum pieces. They stand in working villages, with cows in the lanes, firewood stacked against the walls and the bells still ringing, and together they make one of the best-preserved groups of Romanesque churches in Europe. Sant Climent and Santa Maria de Taüll, the pair that everyone comes for, stand a few hundred metres apart on the hillside above the Noguera de Tor, and they were consecrated within a day of each other in December 1123. The others, in Boí, Erill la Vall, Cardet, Durro, Barruera and Coll, are quieter but each has a character of its own.
Look first at the towers. They are slim, tall and decorated with rows of small blind arches, the Lombard fashion brought up from northern Italy, and they can be seen from across the valley, so that the road up feels like a count-off of villages by steeple. At Boí, the church of Sant Joan keeps a painted scene of the stoning of Saint Stephen. The great paintings from Taüll, including the Christ in Majesty of Sant Climent, were taken off the walls in the early twentieth century and are now in the museum in Barcelona, with replicas in the churches, but the buildings reward a visit on their own.
The riding up the valley is a joy. The road from El Pont de Suert runs for about thirty kilometres in a gentle climb, with views of the high peaks ahead, and the bends are open and well banked. The surface is generally excellent, but the valley is often shaded, so ice can linger in winter and spring. Weekends in July and August bring traffic, and in winter skiers heading for Boí-Taüll fill the road, so a weekday morning in May or October is the best time.
Fuel is at El Pont de Suert, not in the valley itself, and Vielha, twenty-two kilometres away over the range, is the nearest town of any size. Restaurants in Boí and Taüll serve the mountain food of this part of the Pyrenees, with stews, cured sausages and local cheeses, and half an hour in a cool church followed by a coffee is a fine way to close a day. Churches are not always open, so ask in the tourist office before you go.