Guided tour of Sispony

The power of the Church is perceived in the daily life of the people, but also when it comes to determining their conduct—what is right and what is wrong. Based on this code of behavior, it is decided who is outside the community: infidels, heretics, delinquents, criminals... and witches.

In Andorra, there are testimonies of various witch trials during the late Middle Ages and the early modern period (15th–17th centuries), and judicial documentation has been preserved, helping us understand the hunt for these women.

Around sixty witch trial proceedings and complementary documentation generated before sentencing have been preserved, although the surviving records are fragmentary.

Typically, women accused of witchcraft had little social support, limited economic means, advanced age... and a bad reputation. Throughout the process, they were tortured and accused of infanticide, poisoning...

In Sispony, multiple women were accused of witchcraft:

1.Pasquala Oriola, a widow married in Àreu (Vall Ferrera). She was identified as a witch during the courts of 1604, specifically in the investigation of testimonies against Maria Riba Jussana of Sispony. The records of her trial are not preserved, preventing us from knowing if she was ultimately arrested and condemned.
_{Archival ref.: ANA, TC, 3068.}

2.Maria Riba Jussana, from Sispony, was identified as a witch during the courts of 1604. Only the testimonies of various neighbors are preserved, but not the rest of the trial, which prevents us from knowing if she was ultimately arrested and condemned.
_{Archival ref.: ANA, TC, 3068.}

3.Antònia Riba, alias la Corneta, originally from Sispony, a sixty-year-old widow living in Ordino (where she had a married son), was arrested and tried for witchcraft in 1621. Despite being identified as a witch in the contemporary confession of Àngela Borrellona, Antònia denied all charges and was finally released at the end of October 1621. However, la Corneta of Sispony was arrested again during the courts of 1629.
_{Archival ref.: ANA, TC, 3199.}

One of the traditional houses in Sispony is Cal Jubellà, a rectangular manor house built in 1875, currently uninhabited.

In the history of this house, one of its inhabitants was one of the thirteen Andorrans who passed through concentration camps during World War II. We are referring to the case of Francesc Mora Calvet (September 17, 1912), from Cal Jubellà in Sispony, the first Andorran for whom there is recorded evidence of being detained by the Nazis.

On January 31, 1943, fate played a cruel trick on him on a train. He was coming from Toulouse with nothing but an umbrella. He was supposed to get off at L’Hospitalet, but he fell asleep on the train. When he woke up, he found himself in Tour de Carol, where the Nazis boarded and arrested him.

His first destination was Perpignan prison. Days later, he was taken to another internment center in Compiègne, where, months later, he would end up meeting seven other Andorrans. The eight had been arrested for the alleged crime of collaborating with the French Resistance.

On January 17, 1944, his situation worsened. The eight Andorrans were transferred to Germany, eventually reaching the Buchenwald concentration camp. On January 19, 1944, Francesc Mora was registered under the number 404975 as a political prisoner.

On February 22, 1944, he was transferred to the Flossenbürg subcamp. Later, accompanied by another Andorran, Pere Mandicó Vidal—better known as “the friar of Xicos”—he was deported to the Mauthausen-Gusen camp.

When the Allies began to regain ground, the Nazis forced the prisoners to march on foot to areas they considered safer. These were the so-called death marches, from which only the strongest survived.

Some of his companions were fortunate enough to survive, but Francesc was killed due to his poor physical condition, and his body was never recovered.

The 20th century was a crossroads in Andorra’s history, as the country progressively abandoned a society based on agricultural and livestock activities to give rise to a modern society.

A key moment in this transition was the bellic conflicts of the 20th century. Although Andorra was a neutral country, it suffered the consequences of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and World War II (1939–1945). It became a stage for escape routes and, moreover, found itself caught between a Francoist bishop (Iglesias Navarri) and a pro-Nazi bailiff (Emile Lasmartes).

The years of conflict were times of hardship and smuggling, but also of opportunity. From transporting goods, people moved on to helping others. Some took advantage of the situation, while others actively participated in these escape networks to assist fugitives from Nazism.

The escapees stayed in private homes and some hotels, but their presence displeased both the Nazis and Franco’s dictatorship, who pressured to expel them from the country.

The Nazis did not invade Andorra, but they did intervene. One of these tense moments took place in Sispony.

It is unclear whether there was direct Gestapo intervention in the arrest of Eduard Molné, a driver for the escape networks, when he was transporting four airmen in his vehicle. Although details are scarce, the refugees were in Llorts. Molné picked them up and was supposed to take them to the Hotel Palanques, where they would likely sleep and eat. At the hotel, there were two parked vehicles with men dressed in black. Molné realized they were Gestapo agents and continued to Sispony, where, with a sudden maneuver, he allowed the refugees to escape—but he fell into the hands of the Gestapo.

Molné recalls that he entered a cell in Toulouse on September 30, 1943, and found seven other people there. The eight of them survived as best they could in a space of just over six square meters. The fact that his father, Francesc Molné, had been Andorra’s General Syndic meant his case was studied with special interest. A German representative traveled to Toulouse in mid-October 1943, and Molné was released from prison and returned to Andorra.

Eduard Molné managed to survive, but not all Andorrans were so fortunate.

The route ends at Casa Rull, because this house museum has been the setting for a film that portrays the country during World War II.

The film is El fred que crema (The Cold That Burns), directed by Santi Trullenque, and stars, among other actors, Roger Casamajor. The film depicts Andorra of the smugglers and how the Andorran mountains were filled with refugees, exiles, and escapees...

Sispony is a village in the parish of La Massana, located at an altitude of 1,360 metres. It belongs to the Quart and has roughly a thousand inhabitants. In Sispony, traces of an Andorra based on a near-subsistence economy coexist alongside modern constructions that are essentially those of a dormitory village.

The church of Sispony is dedicated to Saint John and dates from the 17th century. It is an example of Baroque architecture, possibly built on medieval remains.

The church has a rectangular layout, with the sacristy attached to the western wall. The roof has two different levels and a considerable eaves that protect the walls from the rain. The façade faces east and has an entrance door covered with a semicircular arch, above which there is an oculus.

Attached to the façade is a square-plan tower bell tower, five storeys high, where bells were placed to announce and communicate. The first three floors have small loophole openings, and the fourth floor has a window with a semicircular arch.

Inside the church, there is a Gothic-era carving of Saint John, quite restored, and a Baroque carving of the Virgin. The apse is fully decorated with 19th-century mural paintings by Josep Oromí.

Between the 1950s and 1960s, due to the widening of the Camí Coberts road, the side chapel that still remained on the north façade was demolished.