Earliest Andorran-drawn map (1797) from Antoni Puig revealed

Among the many curiosities in the "Politar" that Jordi Alcobé lent to the Consell General in March, the most striking is a map drawn by Antoni Puig: the first map of Andorra produced by an Andorran hand and one that had never been published—until now.

The map is a sketch Puig included in a manuscript he titled Manual Digest de les Valls de Andorra, dated 1797. Although the title suggests a copy of the Manual Digest, the volume is actually a third version of Puig’s own Politar Andorrà first written in 1764. Historian Francesc Rodríguez has X‑rayed the manuscript and will present his conclusions and the volume next Thursday at the Consell General. The manuscript has been restored and deposited at the National Archive, where it can be consulted online.

The map is important for three reasons. First, it is the earliest known map executed by a native of the Valls Neutres. Earlier maps exist, notably the Carte géographique de la Vallée d’Andorre by French engineer Nicholas Lengelée, made around 1774 for the Consell General, but those were foreign productions. Second, the sketch is likely the draft Puig and Francisco de Zamora used when they climbed Casamanya in September 1788 to refine the final, more detailed map that is now preserved in Madrid together with Zamora’s travel dossier. Third, it had never been seen before because it formed part of the Politar Puig reworked in 1797 and its existence only came to light after Alcobé ceded the manuscript.

Compared with the more elaborate map sent to Zamora, Puig’s Politar sketch is evidently rough. Rodríguez notes it is disoriented: Puig places "ponent" (west) to the south and "tremuntana" (north) to the west, as if the compass were rotated by 90º, and the windrose mixes up the cardinal points, locating north at west. The sheet also shows confusion between latitude and longitude, and the county of Foyx (spelled with a y) appears in an arbitrary position. These mistakes mark Puig as a well‑intentioned but approximate cartographer, errors that are absent in the definitive version.

The sketch treats the Spanish side of the border summarily—only Arcavell, Civís, Ministrell and Aós appear—and omits any reference to the Segre valley. By contrast, the Madrid map details the route from la Seu to Puigcerdà and gives much more attention to the French side, an area of particular interest to Zamora. The Valira river is not named on Puig’s sketch, yet the map is notably precise and detailed in placing villages, quarters, hamlets, bridges and bordes: from Sant Julià, Masdelins, Fomtaneda and Canòlich to Canillo, la Costa, Ransol and Sol‑Deu, and through Vila, Encamp, the Cortals and Meritxell, to Ordino, Ansalonga, la Cortinada and Llorts, and Entremesaigües, Ràmio and Fontverd, among others.

Small peculiarities underline its draft character: a locality that appears as Solana on the Zamora map is labelled Devessa (with two s’s) on Puig’s sketch, and the sheet is patched with paper fragments where the original space ran out, with inscriptions continuing across the repairs.

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