LÃdia Armengol i Vila (13 September 1948 – 26 November 1991) was an Andorran historian and civil servant who championed the restoration of her country's historic language and culture.
Biography
Armengol was born in the old quarter of Andorra la Vella, the capital city of
Andorra
Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...
(a landlocked
microstate
A microstate or ministate is a sovereign state having a very small population or land area, usually both. However, the meanings of "state" and "very small" are not well-defined in international law. Some recent attempts to define microstates ...
in the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...
mountains). She attended primary classes in a French school there and then went to the
University of Perpignan in nearby
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, where she continued her education at the Lycée
Jean Lurçat. She graduated from the Spanish section of Letters in 1971. The following year she obtained her master's degree (Maîtrise d'Enseignement) at the same university.
In 1978, she received the Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA) in the specialty of Andorran Studies at the University of Perpignan. In 1984, she took a course in historical demography at the École d'Hautes Études de Sciencies in
Paris, France
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
.
Government service
According to writer Antoni Pol, "Her contribution has been twofold, in two dimensions, politics and culture."
Armengol was a promoter of the "Andorranization Program," which she proposed in 1970 when she was about 22 years of age.
The program became the basis of the country's public school system which, in turn, led to widespread cultural awareness.
"These were years in which the institutionalisation of culture was framed as part of a process of reform directed at the country's political institutions, resulting, twenty years later in a constituent process and the passing of the Constitution of 14 March 1993, making Andorra an independent state that followed the rule of law and enjoyed a social welfare system."
On 1 March 1973, she was appointed co-head of the country's Pedagogical Department, with
Antoni Morell i Mora, and was later appointed General Secretary of the Department of Social Affairs, eventually heading the Department of Education, Culture and Sports.

She helped organize the teaching of the
Catalan language, Andorran geography and history, and the establishment of Andorran institutions near the centers of Spanish and French education in the country, creating the Andorran Training program.
In 1975 she created the
National Library of Andorra and then the
National Archives
National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention.
Conceptual development
From the Middle Ages i ...
. Then, a year later, the General Counsel created the Institute of Andorran Studies and put Armengol in its leadership position.
The Institute's aim was,
"to promote the historical research and the dissemination of scientific knowledge. The person put in charge of the new institute's organization of historical and cultural knowledge was the historian Lidia Armengol. ... Armengol published collections of key materials for research and prepared historical overviews that laid the groundwork for writing the history of the country and encourage young people to take an interest in their roots and in their own language and culture. The mythologised history of this Pyrenean enclave began to give way to a rigorous and critical historical account within a framework that generated many more studies, which were also aimed at the internationalisation of knowledge on Andorra."
During the government of prime minister
Òscar Ribas Reig (1982 –1984), Armengol was appointed Director of Culture and Fine Arts. When the next government took over, the new prime minister,
Josep Pintat i Solans, appointed her to the position of General Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Culture. In 1990, when Ribas returned to the top government post, she was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the Presidency.
Historical research
In parallel with her political work, she continued her historical research, publishing numerous works about her country's Catalan language and culture. She was awarded the 1987 Principality of Andorra Prize, for ''Social Behaviors and Collective Mentalities: the Andorran ecclesiastical legacies of the 19th century.''
Death
LÃdia Armengol died at the Hospital Nostra Senyora de Meritxell in Andorra la Vella on 26 November 1991
at 43 years of age, after a long illness. Her funeral was held the next day in the city's parish church of Sant Esteve (
Església de Sant Esteve), attended by more than a thousand mourners.
Legacy
* In 1998 the Government of Andorra and the Institut d'Estudis Andorrans published a book in her memory which collected the memories of those who had known her both personally and professionally.
* In 2007 the magazine ''Àgora Cultural'' dedicated a monograph to her, which she shared with the then also deceased Manel Mas i Ribó, her personal friend and colleague in the Government.
* In 2012, a city square in Andorra la Vella, the capital city of Andorra, was renamed Plaça LÃdia Armengol.
*The Government of Andorra, through the Ministry of Culture, offers the LÃdia Armengol Vila grant, each year, which is intended to promote linguistic or
sociolinguistic
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...
studies based on the
Catalan language
Catalan () is a Western Romance languages, Western Romance language and is the official language of Andorra, and the official language of three autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous communities in eastern Spain: Catalonia, the Balearic I ...
of Andorra.
*Her portrait appeared on an Andorran stamp valued at 1.20 euros.
Selected publications
According to
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
in 2020, Armengol has 15 works in 56 publications in 4 languages in library holding around the world.
* 1978 ''Andorra ... some time ago'': (1st and 2nd series). Prades: Terra Nostra
* 1978 ''Materials for a bibliography of Andorra''.
ndorra Institut d'Estudis Andorrans. Center of Perpignan
* 1980 ''The General Council (1682-1979): chronological collection of the Andorran patricians''. With Manuel Mas and Antoni Morell
* 1983 ''Approach to the history of Andorra''. Andorra: Institut d'Estudis Andorrans. Center of Perpignan
* 1985 ''A sample of our historical legacy: 600 institutional, economic and social events''
* 1987 ''The parish of Ordino in the 19th century: a demographic-historical study''.
ndorra Institut d'Estudis Andorrans. Center of Perpignan ( )
* 1988 ''Social behaviors and collective mentalities: the Andorran ecclesiastical legacies of the 19th century''. Andorra: Consell General ( )
References
External links
* LÃdia Armengol i Vila in the Catalog of the National Library of Andorra: http://b10310uk.eos-intl.eu/B10310UK/OPAC/Search/SimpleSearch.aspx?TaskCode=1477614&TitleListPageSize=100&SavedSearch=true
{{DEFAULTSORT:Armengol i Vila, Lidia
1948 births
1991 deaths
People from Andorra la Vella
Women historians
Historians from Catalonia
Sociology educators