Engolaster Lake

Engolasters Lake is one of the most beautiful lakes in Andorra, located near the town of Encamp. The lake is 1616 meters above sea level, and the elevation difference of the nearby hills is 300 meters. Engolasters is hidden among dense forests, and you can reach it by a paved route and steep slopes. Once here, you definitely won’t regret it – the lake offers impressive views of the surrounding Enkampa Valley. You can also take the cable car between Lake Engolasters and Enkamp. It is as long as 6.2 kilometers!

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Legends of the lake

The valley of Lake Engolasters has a colorful, magical and exciting atmosphere. Here legends mix with reality, and no local can no longer say where is truth and where is speculation. But this halo of mystery only adds a special charm to the lake.

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According to one legend, all the stars of the firmament, admiring the incomparable beauty of the lake, at one time fall to its bottom and must remain imprisoned in the waters of Engolasters until the end of time.

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There is also a well-known old parable about the origin of the lake. Long ago there was a wealthy mountain village on the site of the lake. The houses were built of the finest stone, the cattle yards were full of well-groomed domestic animals. The granaries overflowed with grain. Each family had plenty of their own land and the good things they had accumulated over the years. The villagers from generation to generation lived in satiety and prosperity. One evening a homeless wanderer came into the village. His clothes were in rags and his face haggard from hunger. He walked around the village from house to house, knocking on doors asking for some food, but no one gave him any. And then, as a punishment to the inhabitants, the waters of heaven fell upon the village, and it sank into the depths of a lake. This wanderer, the legend says, was Jesus Christ himself.

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Such legends do not scare travelers, but only attract them to the mysterious lake Engolasters. By the way not far from it, at an altitude of 1500 meters, is the church of St. Michael, which, according to documents, was built in 1176. It is said that this church used to be located in a nearby small village, and then the spirits moved it to the lake. Inside the church there used to be frescoes from the Romanesque era. Today they can be seen in Barcelona’s Museum of Romanesque Art.

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