2. General characteristics
• The lake has 1100m long per 200m width.
• It is at 1910m tall.
• The lake is in Aigüestortes and Estany de Sant
Maurici National Park (Boí, Lerida, Spain).
3. Weather
• The medium temperature in the Park oscillate
between zero and five degrees. The winter of
high mountain is very cold, in the high parts
during more than for months the temperatures
don’t go up more than 0 degrees.
• The annual precipitations are between 900 mm
and 1.300 mm, distributed in some 150 days of
precipitations. These 150 days com a minimum
100 the precipitation is in form of snow.
4. Human landscape
• The most outstanding feature of the Park is the scenery. Spectacularly
beautiful, it is made up of a series of elements that complement each
other almost perfectly to form a harmonious collection of sharp peaks and
dramatic ridges, thick forests and green meadows, rivers of transparent
water and deep lakes.
The foundation of the landscape is made up of the rocks, the precipitous
relief and the huge rock walls are the result of erosion by glaciers that
filled these valleys around 50,000 years ago. The ice melted to reveal the
results of its slow sculpting. The melt water filled all the holes, leaving
blue spots on the rocks, and formed beautiful waterfalls between the
levels of the main valley and the small secondary valleys.
Life gradually invaded the rocky wasteland: first the lichens settled on the
surface of the rocks, colouring them yellow, white and orange. Then the
mosses, grasses, shrubs and trees colonised the valleys, adding shades of
green to the colour palette. Animals large and small soon followed,
including man, who soon left his mark.
5. • Already in the Neolithic Age he would take the first herds up to the
mountains to graze in the summer and used fire to burn down the
forest to make way for more meadows.
In the early 20th century this secular high-mountain isolation was
broken and hydroelectric plants began to appear in the Pyrenees to
feed industry in the cities. This has perhaps been the most indelible
of the marks man has left on the National Park
while, paradoxically, it made a positive contribution to its being
declared as such.
The 20th century was also when city dwellers discovered the
Pyrenees. First, the intrepid explorers avid for experiences and then
incipient tourism, for the upper classes only, that with the
socioeconomic boom of the second half of the century spread to
the middle and working classes too.
6. Economics of the place
• The economy is based in the touristic service
sector, tan in summer with the National Park
com in winter with the ski slopes.
7. History of the Park’s Protection
• At the end of September 1955, General Franco visited the
Pyrenees to open a number of hydroelectric power
stations in the region. Having spent the night in La
Farga, Boí, he went to El Portarró, on his way to Espot. A
month later, in accordance with an old law on national
parks enacted in 1916, Aigüestortes and Estany de Sant
Maurici National Park was created by decree on 21 October
1955.
Originally it had an area of only 9,851 ha and was the fifth
national park to be declared in Spain and the second in the
Pyrenees after Ordesa.
The Spanish law on protected natural areas, of 2 May
1975, involved a new regulation of national parks and
established the need to reclassify them in order to comply
with international criteria.
8. • The geographical area covered 10,230 ha in
the municipal areas of La Vall de Boí (Alta
Ribagorça) and Espot (Pallars Sobirà). This
extension increased the protected Park area
to 14,119 ha, leaving only 231 ha in the hands
of private owners. At the same time, the
peripheral area grew to 26,733 ha.
9. Geology
• These rocks were surrounded by others—mainly
sedimentary rocks, slate and limestone— that
underwent metamorphism and folding during the
Paleozoic (Primary Era) and are found on the
edges of the Park.
Much later, in the Tertiary Era and during the
Alpine orogeny, the forces that gave rise to final
formation of the Pyrenees worked again on the
same materials, which were further deformed
and fractured and underwent a process that
eventually brought about the current relief.
10. Flora and vegetation
• The great difference between the highest (3,029 m)
and the lowest (1,200 m) parts of the Park gives rise to
increased biodiversity. Temperature drops as altitude
increases. In addition, aspect and slope determine the
solar radiation received, the temperature regime,
evapotranspiration and water availability in each
community. Also wind circulation and the contrasts
between sunny and shady slopes give rise to
peculiarities of climate. The upper slopes and peaks
suffer constant erosion, while the lowlands are
reservoirs of water and nutrients.
Thanks to all these factors, a relatively small area
contains a relatively high number of plant species.
11. Fauna
• Spotting wildlife might seem difficult. Here the animals are in
their element and you will need to sharpen your senses to
identify them, but there are almost 200 species of vertebrate
living in the Park.
Amongst the mammals found here are the Pyrenean chamois,
the wild boar, the stoat, the marmot and the roe deer.
• Birds form the largest vertebrate group in the National Park:
In the most inaccessible forests are the black woodpecker, the
capercailzie and the crossbill, amongst others.
The griffon vulture, the golden eagle and the bearded vulture
can easily be seen above the bare slopes and ridges, and in the
alpine meadows we find the rock ptarmigan, the Alpine accentor
and the yellow-billed chough.
12. Culture and history
• The Middle Ages marked an unprecedented cultural
awakening in the Pyrenees with the arrival of the
Romanesque. This gave rise to a unique artistic heritage which
is perfectly integrated in the surrounding landscape. The
municipality of La Vall de Boí contains one of the most
important Romanesque architectural ensembles in Europe
and the most complete and magnificent in the Pyrenees, with
churches such as Sant Climent and Santa Maria de Taüll, Sant
Joan de Boí and Santa Eulàlia d'Erill la Vall, to name but a few.
In the Àneu valleys we can see the churches of Sant Just i Sant
Pastor in the village of Son, Sant Joan d'Isil, Sant Pere del
Burgal and the watchtowers of Espot and Escaló.
• On 30 November 2000, the Romanesque churches of La Vall
de Boí were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
