🇦🇩 Andorra
Andorra La Vella
Andorra la Vella (population 22,000 — the capital and largest city of the Principality of Andorra, and the highest capital city in Europe at 1,023m above sea level) is one of the most unusual sovereign states in the world: a co-principality jointly ruled by two co-princes (the President of France and the Catholic Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia — a medieval constitutional arrangement established by the Paréage of 1278 that has survived intact for 745 years, making Andorra the oldest surviving co-principality in the world and one of the oldest continuous constitutional arrangements in Europe). The Principality of Andorra (area 468 km² — smaller than Singapore) occupies a series of high Pyrenean valleys (1,000–2,900m altitude) between France and Catalonia (Spain), and has developed one of the most unusual economic models in Europe: the combination of duty-free shopping (Andorra has no VAT, no customs duties and extremely low taxes on alcohol, tobacco, perfume, electronics and luxury goods — the duty-free advantage draws 10 million visitors per year (50× the population of Andorra) primarily from France and Spain who cross the border specifically to buy discounted goods), ski tourism (the Vallnord and Grandvalira ski resorts — the largest ski area in the Pyrenees), and high-altitude summer hiking (the GR7 long-distance hiking trail crosses Andorra from France to Spain). The historic quarter of Andorra la Vella — the Casa de la Vall (the 16th-century house of the Andorran parliament, one of the smallest and oldest parliament buildings in the world), the Sant Esteve church (the 12th-century Romanesque parish church), and the Barri Antic (the old quarter cobblestone streets) — provides a surprising cultural depth behind the shopping-mall and ski-resort exterior.