Santa María de Cardet, Romanesque parish church in Cardet, la Vall de Boí, Spain

Santa María de Cardet, also called Santa María de les Cabanasses, is a 12th-century Romanesque church at the edge of Cardet, its apse built over a ravine. The apse is taller than those of other Vall de Boí churches and has two storeys: a barrel-vaulted crypt below and the chancel above, each with a round-arched window. Lombard bands, blind arcades and a sawtooth frieze decorate the exterior.

The church was probably built in the 11th or 12th century. In the 12th or 13th century the nave collapsed and rebuilding took place. It was remodelled in Baroque style in the 17th and 18th centuries, and a side chapel and sacristy were added later. A major restoration was carried out in 2005–06.

The altar frontal now in the church is a copy; the original, made in the second half of the 13th century in a workshop of the Ribagorza, is kept at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona. It is tempera on wood with stucco decoration: a Madonna and Child in a mandorla, the Evangelist symbols, and scenes of the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi and Flight into Egypt. The church also venerates the 14th-century Mare de Déu de les Cabanesses.

The church stands at the far end of Cardet, with the apse built over a ravine, so the ground drops away behind it. The western portal with its carved chrismon faces the village lane, and the bell gable rises above it. The nave and the two-storey apse are the parts to look at; the crypt lies beneath the apse and is reached from inside.

This church is the only one in Vall de Boí to feature a crypt, ingeniously incorporated into the uneven terrain beneath the apse. This underground chamber is a rare feature among the valley's churches and demonstrates a unique construction approach.