Barruera is the main village of the Vall de Boí, and its church of Sant Feliu stands over the houses with a stout tower and a roofline that has been altered through the centuries. Here, more than in the smaller villages higher up, you get a sense of the valley as a living place, with a main street, a few shops, a café, and children heading to school. The valley is just over twenty kilometres from Vielha as the crow flies, but the mountains between make it a very different world.
The road in from the south is part of the experience. The L-500 and the roads that continue to Boí follow the Noguera de Tor upstream with the peaks of the Aigüestortes park rising ahead, and the surface is generally good with moderate gradients and smooth bends. In winter the valley can be icy and snowbound at the top end, but from May to October it is open and green. Early morning is the quietest time, and the light on the stone is lovely.
History here is dense. The valley was fought over in the early Middle Ages as Christian counts pushed back the Muslim frontier, and the villages built defensive towers that later became bell towers, which is one reason why they are so tall. In the twelfth century the region saw an extraordinary flowering of art, with wall paintings that are now considered masterpieces of European Romanesque. The best of them were taken to Barcelona in the 1920s, but copies in the churches give a feel for the original colours.
For fuel, the nearest sure place is El Pont de Suert, back down the valley, as the villages here are small. Vielha is about twenty-two kilometres away, over the mountains, and has everything. A walk around Barruera's lanes takes only a few minutes, and the village has a good place for a coffee and a slice of local cheese. The mountains around hold chamois and marmots, and golden eagles hunt along the ridges.