Andorra's defining fact is a piece of paper: the 1278 Pareatges (and a confirming second treaty in 1288), which ended a dispute between the Bishop of Urgell, in Catalonia, and the Count of Foix, in France, by making them joint co-princes of the Andorran valleys rather than letting either side win outright. Nearly seven and a half centuries later, that exact arrangement still runs the country — the French co-prince's title has simply passed down through inheritance and, since 1607, automatic transfer to whoever holds the French crown or, after 1789, the French presidency.
That makes the sitting President of France, however briefly they hold office and whatever else is on their desk, also a reigning co-prince of Andorra today — a genuinely unique constitutional survival, not a ceremonial title invented for tourism.
Before 1278, Andorra was not yet a state at all: a Carolingian charter of 843 confirms the Diocese of Urgell's rights over the valleys, and for the next four centuries competing feudal and ecclesiastical claims — not a single government — held sway, until the Pareatge finally settled them.
Scope of this page: the Andorran valleys, c. 843–present, four political phases. The core governing structure — joint headship by the Bishop of Urgell and a French co-prince — has never actually broken since 1278; what changes is who holds the French half of the title and how democratic the internal government becomes. No internal partition map applies. Part of a larger atlas — see the linked pages at the bottom.
One border, one co-principality
Andorra's own real border, traced whole — a single mountain co-principality with no internal region to carve out honestly. Press play, or drag the slider, to move through all three eras.
Andorra has never split into separate internal territories. Before the 1278 Paréages settled joint rule between the Bishop of Urgell and the Count of Foix, the valleys were a disputed feudal and ecclesiastical dependency rather than a state of their own, and since 1278 Andorra has been one small Pyrenean co-principality — so this page shows one border throughout, with only the ruling arrangement and flag changing.
c. 843
Carolingian Grant & Feudal Andorra
Real traced border, no internal partition — Andorra has been one co-principality throughout its history.
How we know this. 4 of 4 eras on this page carry an evidence panel (1 attested, 1 placeholder image, 2 not yet checked). Only the ones marked attested are confirmed by the sources named under them; where sources disagree or a claim could not be confirmed, the panel says so.
blue-yellow-red tricolor from 1866; the sources read put the coat of arms on the flag from about 1939
1866 – present
Co-Principality of Andorra (modern, with coat of arms)
Co-principalityJosep CaixalRoman Catholic (Bishop of Urgell as co-prince)
Migration & conquest:Immigration: Spanish, Portuguese & French labor migration
Ruling house:House of Bourbon
Who & why: an 1866 reform under Bishop-co-prince Josep Caixal modernizes Andorra's internal government while leaving the 1278 co-principality itself untouched, and the tricolor with the national arms is fixed as the flag around this period. The co-principality survives France's own revolutions and republics — the French National Convention briefly renounces the co-prince title in 1793 before Napoleon restores it in 1806 — and Andorra adopts its first written constitution only in 1993, ending centuries of ad hoc feudal governance while explicitly keeping both co-princes as heads of state.
What it represents: Wikipedia says the vertical blue-yellow-red civil flag dates from 1866 (reforms first adopted by Co-Prince Bishop Josep Caixal on 22 April 1866) and that the coat of arms was added to the vertical flag around 1939; the design was standardised by the 1993 Constitution. Flags of the World lists the flag as adopted in 1866 (date uncertain, with a plain tricolour in use c. 1870) and says arms have been used from at least 1939. The page's claim that the arms were added in 1866, and the motto Virtus Unita Fortior, are not in the sources read.
Attestedhow we know this
Wikipedia: the civil vertical tricolour dates from 1866 (reforms adopted 22 April 1866 by Bishop Caixal), arms added to the vertical flag around 1939, standardised by the 1993 Constitution. Flags of the World (historical flags): 'In 1866 Napoleon III obtained the inclusion of the blue'; talocci (1993) says the tricolour replaced the yellow-red flag in 1866; a horizontal blue-yellow-red flag with a coronet in the centre is described in 1898 (Spender) and 1917 (National Geographic) and abolished c. 1934/5; a vertical blue-yellow-red flag with the arms (coronet, no motto) is shown in Flaggenbuch 1939. Wikipedia (Andorra): the New Reform of 1866 is linked to the national symbols such as the tricolour flag.
Not established: The page's arms in 1866 are contradicted: Flags of the World shows a coronet, not arms, on a horizontal tricolour between 1866 and about 1934/5, and vertical stripes with arms only from c. 1939; sources differ on the 1993 constitution date (28 April versus 4 May) and the 1866 date is marked uncertain by Flags of the World.
Paint guide
Proportions7:10, three equal vertical bands.
LayoutBlue, yellow, red vertical tricolor, national coat of arms centered on the yellow band.
Blue#002B7F
Yellow#FCD116
Red#E30000
plain blue-yellow-red tricolor, before the arms were added
1806 – 1866
Co-Principality of Andorra (restored, plain tricolor)
Co-principalityNapoleon BonaparteRoman Catholic (Bishop of Urgell as co-prince)
Ruling house:House of Bourbon
Who & why: Napoleon, as First Consul, formally restores the French co-prince title in 1806 after the revolutionary National Convention had renounced feudal privileges including it in 1793 — a nominal gap Andorra's own governance mostly rode out unaffected, since the bishop's half of the co-principality never lapsed. Andorra remains a quiet, isolated, largely self-governing valley society through this period, with local government run by a Council of the Land drawing from the valleys' leading families.
What it represents: Flags of the World's historical page shows a vertical yellow-red bicolour for about 1806-1866 (citing Pedersen 1971, Herzog and Hannes 1990 and Talocci 1993, which links the colours to the Counts of Foix) and says the blue was added in 1866 at the instance of Napoleon III, so a plain blue-yellow-red tricolour before 1866 is not supported. Its main page says that when Napoleon gave Andorra a constitution in 1806 the flag used the local traditional Catalan colours in a vertical French pattern. Wikipedia does not mention 1806 and says Napoleon I re-established the Co-Principate in 1809.
Not yet checked against sourceshow we know this
Flags of the World (historical flags): 1806-1866 a vertical yellow-red bicolour, adopted c. 1806 and replaced by the tricolour in 1866 (Pedersen 1971, linking the colours to the Counts of Foix, and Herzog & Hannes 1990 agree; Talocci 1993; image from the 1932 Grand Larousse Illustre); its main page says that when Napoleon gave Andorra a constitution in 1806 the flag, in vertical French pattern, used the local traditional Catalan colours. Wikipedia (Andorra) does not mention 1806 and says Napoleon I re-established the Co-Principate in 1809 and an imperial decree restored independence in 1814.
Not established: Wikipedia gives no independent flag for 1806-1866 and no source supports this page's plain blue-yellow-red tricolour; the 1806 date for the flag rests on Flags of the World alone and Wikipedia gives 1809/1814 for the Napoleonic restoration.
Paint guide
ProportionsNo fixed ratio recorded for this period; shown at 7:10.
LayoutBlue, yellow, red vertical tricolor, no emblem.
Blue#002B7F
Yellow#FCD116
Red#E30000
joint episcopal and comital heraldry, shown schematically — no fixed national flag yet
1278 – 1806
Co-Principality of Andorra (founding co-principality)
Co-principalityBishop of Urgell & Count of FoixRoman Catholic (Bishop of Urgell as co-prince)
Ruling house:House of FoixHouse of Bourbon
Who & why: a long-running dispute over feudal rights to the Andorran valleys between the Bishop of Urgell and the Count of Foix is resolved by the Pareatge of 1278, confirmed by a second Pareatge in 1288, establishing the pair as joint co-princes with shared sovereignty — neither ruling alone, both entitled to tribute and homage. The Foix title later passes by inheritance to the Kings of Navarre and then, through Henry IV, to the Kings of France itself in 1607, fixing the French crown (and its later republican successors) as the permanent holder of the secular half.
What it represents: the sources read do not describe any flag or heraldic device for the co-princes in 1278-1806; Wikipedia says only that the modern arms symbolise the Bishop of Urgell, the Count of Foix, Catalonia and Béarn, and Flags of the World lists an undated earlier flag without detail.
Not yet checked against sourceshow we know this
Wikipedia (Andorra): the polity was formed by a charter in 1278 (the first paréage, mediated by Peter III of Aragon, splitting sovereignty between the Count of Foix and the Bishop of Urgell), as a lordship within the Principality of Catalonia until 1715. Flags of the World (historical flags): before 1806 Andorra used the Catalan Quatre Barres, since 'no other flag was known' before the 19th century (Olle), with no colours or design given on the page.
Not established: The Catalan flag is Ollé's inference rather than a documented Andorran flag; neither source describes episcopal or comital heraldry used as a flag; the page's schematic drawing is not documented.
Paint guide
ProportionsN/A — no attested national flag.
placeholder maroon field — disputed feudal and ecclesiastical dependency, no banner of its own
c. 843 – 1278
Carolingian Grant & Feudal Andorra
Feudal / ecclesiastical dependency, disputed overlordshipCharles the Bald (843 charter)Roman Catholic (Diocese of Urgell)
Migration & conquest:Granted to: Diocese of Urgell (843 charter)
Who & why: a long-standing Andorran tradition holds that Charlemagne granted the valley's inhabitants privileges around 805 CE in gratitude for their help fighting the Moors, but the earliest document that actually survives is a charter of his grandson Charles the Bald in 843, confirming the Diocese of Urgell's rights over the Andorran parishes. For the following four centuries Andorra is not a state of its own but a disputed ecclesiastical and feudal dependency — the bishop's spiritual authority overlapping with competing temporal claims from the Counts of Urgell and the viscounts of Caboet and Castellbò — a tangle of rights that the Bishop of Urgell and the Count of Foix (who inherited the Caboet-Castellbò claims by marriage) finally settle with the 1278 Pareatge.
What it represents: no flag or fixed heraldic device is documented for Andorra in this era; such authority as existed was represented, if at all, by the separate arms of the Diocese of Urgell and the various feudal claimants, not by any banner specific to the valleys themselves. Shown here honestly blank rather than invented.
World context: the 843 Urgell charter is contemporary with the Treaty of Verdun that same year, which permanently splits Charlemagne's empire among his three grandsons; the following centuries bring Viking raids across the rest of early medieval Europe, the height of the Abbasid Caliphate's Islamic Golden Age in Baghdad, and, as this era closes, the construction of Gothic cathedrals such as Notre-Dame de Paris (begun 1163) just as the Bishop of Urgell and the Count of Foix negotiate the 1278 settlement that finally gives Andorra its own government.
Placeholder imagehow we know this
This page's own caption calls the image a placeholder: «placeholder maroon field — disputed feudal and ecclesiastical dependency, no banner of its own».
Not established: Whether a flag, banner or standard existed in this period was not checked. The colour shown is not evidence of one.
Paint guide
ProportionsN/A — no attested flag for this feudal-era dependency.
Reading the tags
Co-principality — jointly headed by the Bishop of Urgell and a French co-prince, unbroken since 1278
Leader — the named ruler most associated with the era's start
State religion — the official/established faith, not the population's
Find the records
Family history research for Andorra lives in a different project, Record Atlas, which maps which archive actually holds the paper for a given place and era.