The Vall de Boí is a cul-de-sac with a gift in it. It lies at the head of the Noguera de Tor, tucked below the high granite of the Aigüestortes national park, and in the Middle Ages local people built a string of small stone churches along it, each with a tall Lombard bell tower, so that the valley's skyline reads like a row of exclamation marks. In 2000 UNESCO named them together as the Catalan Romanesque Churches of the Vall de Boí. The Església de la Nativitat in Durro is one of them, and its slim tower seems to catch the light better than almost any other.
The way in is part of the pleasure. From El Pont de Suert you follow the valley road up through Barruera, with the river below and the mountains ahead, and the bends grow tighter and the air cooler as you climb. The surface is good, the traffic modest apart from weekends in winter when skiers head for Boí-Taüll, and in high summer you will share the road with hikers and walkers heading for the park. Snow can close the upper part of the valley in winter, and early mornings in spring can be icy in the shaded bends.
The art that made the valley famous is mostly not here any more, though. The twelfth-century wall paintings of Taüll, including the great Christ in Majesty of Sant Climent, were removed in the 1920s to protect them, and now hang in the museum in Barcelona, with replicas in place in the churches. It is an honest compromise, and the replicas are well done, but it is worth knowing before you ride up expecting to see the originals in situ.
Vielha is the nearest town of any size, twenty-two kilometres away on the other side of the mountain, and the sensible fuel stop is at El Pont de Suert on the way in. Villages in the valley are small, with places to eat that serve mountain food such as stews, cured meats and local cheese. Parking a motorcycle by a Romanesque church wall is no problem, and a short walk through Durro's stone lanes, with their slate roofs and heavy doors, is a pleasant way to rest.