Cal Pal, Heritage building in La Cortinada, Andorra.

Cal Pal is a stone house in La Cortinada, Ordino Parish, built on an L-shaped plan with a ground floor and two upper storeys. A dovecote with white half-timbered walls and a four-sided slate roof projects from one corner, added in the early 19th century. Windows have shutters and carved human faces; inside are a large hearth, a chapel with wall paintings and an archive cupboard.

The building was founded in 1347 as an inn under Bernat Escoter before being transferred in 1435 to Joan Pal with a requirement to reside there permanently. This ownership change reflects property patterns and living conditions in Andorra during its early period.

The house takes its name from the Pal family, to whom it was donated in 1435. Inside are a large hearth, a chapel with wall paintings and an archive cupboard. A hundred metres upstream, the Cal Pal mill and sawmill, fed by the Valira del Nord, form a protected monument opened as an interpretation centre in 1996.

The mill and sawmill of Cal Pal stand about a hundred metres upstream of the Valira del Nord, opposite the church of Sant Martí de la Cortinada, between the CG-3 road and the river. The site was fitted out for visits in 1995 and opened to the public in 1996 as an interpretation centre within the historic ensemble of La Cortinada.

The windows of Cal Pal keep their wooden shutters, and some are framed by carved representations of human faces. Look for these carvings on the openings rather than on the roof beams. The house also preserves a large fireplace, a chapel with wall paintings and an archive cupboard inside.