| Nostra Senyora de Meritxell Hospital | |
|---|---|
 Nostra Senyora de Meritxell Hospital | |
 | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Carrer dels Escalls, AD700 Escaldes-Engordany, Andorra |
| Coordinates | 42°30′42″N1°32′01″E / 42.511657°N 1.533566°E |
| History | |
| Opened | 1993 |
| Links | |
| Lists | Hospitals in Andorra |
Nostra Senyora de Meritxell Hospital (Catalan : Hospital Nostra Senyora de Meritxell) is the only hospital in Andorra. It is named after Our Lady of Meritxell the patron saint of Andorra.
The hospital was built in 1993 on a very steep site of only 5,000 sqm in Escaldes-Engordany. It is constructed on 12 levels. The three lowest levels constitute a car park for 267 cars. The upper floors form an S-shaped linear block. There are 192 single bed rooms with bathrooms. [1]
An artistic installation in the hospital square to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was opened by the Minister of Health, Carles Álvarez in December 2018. [2]
A new radiotherapy unit is to be constructed in the car park on Avenida Fiter i Rossell, next to the hospital, and connected to it by a lift. [3]
For specialist treatment patients may be sent to Barcelona or Toulouse by helicopter. [4]
Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Western Europe, bordered by France to the north and Spain to the south. Believed to have been created by Charlemagne, Andorra was ruled by the count of Urgell until 988, when it was transferred to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Urgell. The present principality was formed by a charter in 1278. It is currently headed by two co-princes: the Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia, Spain, and the president of France. Its capital and largest city is Andorra la Vella.
Canillo is one of the parishes of Andorra. Canillo is also the name of the main town of the parish. The parish is considered the religious center of Andorra with the Sanctuary and Chapel of Our Lady of Meritxell, patron saint of Andorra, and contains one of the best-preserved romanesque churches in the Pyrenees, Sant Joan de Caselles. It has a population of 4,826, as of 2011. Despite having a tourist vocation, the parish of Canillo still retains many livestock and agricultural traits. It borders France.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in Andorra have advanced significantly in the 21st century, and are now considered generally progressive. Civil unions, which grant all the benefits of marriage, have been recognized since 2014, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is constitutionally banned. The General Council passed a bill on 21 July 2022 that would legalize same-sex marriage in 2023, and convert all civil unions into civil marriage. In September 2023, Xavier Espot Zamora, the Prime Minister of Andorra, officially came out as homosexual.
Our Lady of Meritxell is an Andorran Roman Catholic statue depicting an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Our Lady of Meritxell is the patron saint of Andorra. The original statue dated from the late 12th century. However, the chapel in which it was housed burned down on 8 September 1972, and the statue was destroyed. A replica can be found in the new Meritxell Basilica, designed in 1976 by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura.
Futbol Club Andorra is a professional football club based in Andorra la Vella, Andorra, that currently competes in Primera Federación – Group 1, in the Spanish league system. The club was founded in 1942 and currently plays its home fixtures at Estadi Nacional. In spite of being based in the microstate of Andorra, the club, voluntarily affiliated to the Catalan Football Federation, has been allowed to compete in Spanish leagues since 1948.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Andorra since 17 February 2023. Andorra first established stable unions on 23 March 2005, providing same-sex couples with some of the rights and benefits of marriage, and later enacted civil unions on 25 December 2014, offering a greater set of rights. On 21 July 2022, the General Council voted to open civil marriage to same-sex couples. The law was promulgated by Co-Prince Emmanuel Macron on 17 August 2022, and came into effect six months later.
Antoni Martí Petit was an Andorran architect and politician who served as the prime minister of Andorra between 2011 and 2019, when he was elected on the ticket of the Democrats for Andorra.
Life expectancy in Andorra was 79.8 for men and 85.2 years for women in 2010.
Unió Sindical d'Andorra is a national trade union centre in Andorra. As of 2013 Gabriel Ubach i Valdivia was the general secretary of USdA. As of 2014 Maria José Espinosa served as first secretary of USdA.
The Servei Andorrà d'Atenció Sanitària is the Andorran Health Care Service. It was established in December 1986 and manages all the public health care facilities in the country. It co-ordinates the private, public and voluntary sectors.
Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva is an Andorran professional tennis player. At the age of 14, she won the 2020 Australian Open girls' singles title. On 14 November 2022, she reached her best WTA singles ranking of No. 121.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Andorra was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus was confirmed to have reached Andorra on 2 March 2020, when a 20-year-old man returned to the country from Milan, Italy. With a total population of 77,543, on 7 December 2020, the infection rate was 1 case per 11 inhabitants, and the death rate was 1 case per 994 inhabitants.
Lídia Armengol i Vila was an Andorran historian and civil servant who championed the restoration of her country's historic language and culture.
Àngel Pla was a Spanish-born Andorran wood carver specializing in traditional Catholic art and polychrome, especially the Virgin Mary. Pla operated his workshop in the old town of Andorra la Vella from 1970 until shortly before his death. According to Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra, Pla was one of the few remaining professional woodcarvers and artisans working in Andorra.
Elidà Amigó i Montanya was an Andorran historian, archivist, activist, and suffragist. A leader in the feminist movement that led to Andorran women gaining the right to vote in 1970, she was also an academic expert on the history and sociology of the microstate of Andorra. She has been described as "the first Andorran intellectual to bring critical awareness to the condition of women" in the principality.
The literature of Andorra is part of Catalan literature, that is, of literature in the Catalan language. It is the literature represented by the writings created in the Principality of Andorra or by Andorran authors.
In the parliamentary elections in Andorra on 2 April 2023, the incumbent liberal-conservative coalition between Democrats for Andorra (DA) and Committed Citizens (CC) won an absolute majority led by Prime Minister Xavier Espot. This is the fourth legislature in a row in which DA governs the country. A new party, Concord, emerged in second place, taking the opposition leadership held by the Social Democratic Party since 2019, which fell to third place by losing four seats.
The 8th General Council was a meeting of the General Council, the unicameral parliament of Andorra, with the membership determined by the results of the parliamentary election held on 7 April 2019. The General Council met for the first time on 2 May 2019. According to the Constitution of Andorra the maximum legislative term of the congress is 4 years from the preceding election.
The architecture of Andorra demonstrates the varying styles of architecture in its over 800 years of existence.