Sant Julià de Lòria

Sant Julià de Lòria is the southernmost of the seven parishes of the Principality of Andorra and its gateway from Spain, with the parish capital at the country's lowest altitude. It is a parish, not a city, and its character has been forged on the border and on tobacco: the cultivation of the leaf shaped its economy and landscape for generations, a memory preserved today by the Museu del Tabac in the former Reig factory. Its territory is also home to the country's only university, the Universitat d'Andorra, in the centre of town, and on the heights of La Rabassa lies the Naturlandia mountain park. With 9,981 residents in mid-2024, Sant Julià de Lòria was that year one of the least-growing parishes of the Principality.

The mountain is the parish's great sporting and leisure asset. At Naturlandia runs the Tobotronc, an alpine rail toboggan with a 5.3-kilometre route that drops around 400 metres between altitudes of 1,600 and 2,000, presented by the park itself as the longest of its kind. The urban facilities rest on the Centre Esportiu de Sant Julià de Lòria, with several multipurpose halls and a court of 36 by 18 metres suitable for basketball, futsal and handball, and local football is represented by UE Sant Julià.

Sant Julià de Lòria received from ACES Europe the title of European Town of Sport 2023, with the flag handed over at the European Parliament in Brussels in December 2022. The recognition, for municipalities of fewer than 25,000 inhabitants, made the parish the second in Andorra to join the ACES network, after Encamp, distinguished as European Town of Sport 2020.