- Spanish
Derek Tanner (1953) found the agency on the right hand side of the main street in a small
shop not far from the Reig tobacco factory. It was still there in 1962. By 1964
(?) it had moved. I found it in an electrician’s shop at the southern end of the
square, next door to the shop to which the French agency later moved.
|
|
Fig. 16 The electrical shop with posting box on the side wall.
(Photo: Liedel, Andorra-Philatelie, 1978)
|
Fig. 17 The same shop, now a gift shop. (Photo: E. J. Jewell, 2000 -
shortly after the Spanish agency moved but before the French agency moved).
|
The only indication
of it being a post office was a posting box on the side wall.
|
Fig. 18. The new Spanish agency
(Photo: E. J. Jewell, 2002)
|
The electrician’s later
became a gift shop (pre-1973) but remained a postal agency. The postal facilities
at the shop were minimal - a shoe box containing an assortment of stamps and machine labels
and a roll of registration labels. The posting box was moved to the front but there
remained for a time nothing else to indicate the presence of a postal agency. More
recently the Correos y Telegrafos logo has been displayed. The post office remained there
until the summer of 2000 when, like the French agency, it moved to the northern end of the
square. They are now once again almost next door to each other. Opening hours are
9.30am to 12.30 weekdays; 10am to noon Saturday.
Santa Coloma
|
Fig. 19. Santa Coloma
(Photo: E. J. Jewell, 1962).
The Riberaygua house is on the left by the pylon.
|
Santa Coloma has never had a French agency. Spanish agencies here and at Soldeu opened
later than the rest, the one at Santa Coloma opening on 8th October 1928. These are
smaller villages than those where the other agencies are situated. The justification for
an agency at Santa Coloma seems somewhat slender as it is the smaller of the two villages
and fairly close to the capital. Nevertheless the agency at Santa Coloma survived until
very recently whereas that at Soldeu closed after a few years despite being more
justifiable on the grounds of the size of the village and distance from the nearest
alternative post office (Canillo).
|
Fig. 20. The Riberagua house as it is now. (Photo: E. J. Jewell, 2000).
|
Derek Tanner (1953) described the post office as being in a sort of inn down a side
turning from the main road. All it had was a small box containing stamps and the
canceller and ink pad. He did not recall there being any post box. In 1962 I found a
posting box - a slit in a barn door - at the point where Derek indicated. The post office
itself was in a large house, the home of the Riberaygua family, prominently situated on a
bend of the main road at the junction of the lane leading to the church. The postal
facility was a substantial antique desk in the living room. Although no longer a post
office, the Riberaygua house remains little altered to the present day.
|
Fig. 21. Posting boxes adjoining the apartment building.
(Photo: Liedel, 1978).
The typewritten notice is in the panel near the bottom of the Spanish box.
|
By the mid 1960s the post office had moved. On the wall of an apartment building further
up the road towards Andorra la Vella I found a posting box. A typewritten notice on the
box directed you to an adjoining apartment building 1° 2ª. I rang the bell at the second
door on the first floor (the right hand of two at the turn of the stairs). Sure enough,
it was a postal agency. The set up here was very similar to the that at the Riberaygua
house (the agency may well have remained in the family) - a desk in the living room.
By the late 1970s the typewritten notice had faded and become illegible. Anyone not
knowing where to look would have been unlikely to find the agency. A French posting box
had by now appeared on the wall of this building to confuse matters further. Goudard
(1990) confirms this location of the post office.
|
Fig. 22. The new Santa Coloma agency.
(Photo: E. J. Jewell, 2000).
|
In 1999 the agency was no longer in the apartment building. It now occupied a small
single storey building set back from the road in a narrow gap between a pharmacy and an
Alfa Romeo garage. These are just a few paces down from the apartment building in the
direction towards the church. It closed during the summer of 2001 and the building is now
a bar of sorts.
Les Escaldes
There has never been a French agency at Les Escaldes, the locality being served by the
main office at Andorra la Vella.
|
Fig. 23. The present post office in avenue de Gaulle.
(Photo: E. J. Jewell, 2000).
|
Derek Tanner (1953) described the Spanish agency as being in a blacksmith’s in a side
street, "Calla Estrecha", leading off the main road opposite the Hotel Pla.
No stamps were on sale there but they could be obtained in an evil-smelling
grocery/greengrocery shop nearby. By 1962 it had moved to Engordany. To reach it one
crossed the old stone bridge by the Hotel Pla and it was about 100 metres further on,
on the right hand side of the street. Stamps were on sale at a souvenir shop opposite
the Hotel Pla.
From there the agency moved (? date - between 1970 and 1973) to another street leading
towards Engordany, the avenue de Gaulle, which leaves the main road immediately before
the church. The post office is in a municipal building which comprises a row of offices
and a swimming bath. It remains there to the present day. Opening hours: 9am to 2pm
weekdays; 10am to noon Saturday.
(To be continued. The next part will include la Massana and Ordino)
A reminder: This series is published in the hope that readers will be able to provide
corrections and additions to the information and photographs, particularly early ones of
agencies which have now moved. If you have anything relevant, please contact the author
or editor.
e-mail
Part 1
Articles index |
Home Page
Andorran Philatelic Study Circle /
Hon. Librarian: E. J. Jewell / apsc@free.fr /
Updated 1st May 2002
Unless otherwise stated, the French agencies first opened on 16 June 1931 and the Spanish
ones on 1 January 1928. It has been suggested, however, that not all of the agencies may
have functioned precisely from these dates as it may have taken a few days for a postal
official to visit the villages to instruct the agents in their duties.
"First day" postmarks should not be relied upon as evidence that the agency was
active on that date. In the early days there was very little postal traffic in the
villages and the agents would generally oblige a passing philatelist by re-setting the
date. A Madrid dealer is known to have visited Andorra in 1928 and may be the source of
1 ENE 28 postmarks which have been seen.
