European microstates attract their fair share of adventurers. But some want to do more than mountain climb. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Todays stamp looks like a stamp from 1930s’ France. as well it should. It was printed there. Andorra maintains a coadministration of France and of a Spanish Catholic Bishop. Both administrations put out stamps. The Spanish issues are much more church centered than Spain’s non Franco era issues.
Todays stamp is issue A50 a 1 Centime stamp issued by the French administration of Andorra in 1932. It was part of 56 stamp issue in various denominations that were the first stamps of the French administration that were not merely overprints of French issues. The stamp features the Church of Our Lady of Meritxell. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 55 cents mint. The violet 1.75 Franc stamp from this issue is worth $120.
Andorra was formed by Holy Roman Emporer Charlemagne as a border buffer state in the Pyrenees mountains to guard against Moor penetration into France. Through inheritences the adninistation became divided between The Spanish Catholic Bishop of Urgell and the President of France. It is a small landlocked country that was fairly impoverished until recently as improved transportation allowed for more integration with Europe and tourism.
In 1931, a White, (Czar supporter) Russian from Vilneas named Boris Skossyreff was arrested in London for passing bad checks. After being released he made his way to Andorra and obtained citizenship in 1933. He put forth a plan for political reform and requested to be employed to implement them. When this was refused he showed up in Urgell, Spain and declared himself Boris I King of Andorra and Regent to the King of France. He then declared war on the Bishop of Urgell. Remember in 1934, France had not had a King in many years. The claimed Bourbon Royal connection must have carried some weight as the government began drafting a new constitution. This wildness only lasted a week with King Boris being arrested by the Spanish Guardia Civil. Interestingly his trial was delayed when as a Royal he refused to be transferred to Madrid on a third class train ticket. The Spanish claimed he was really a Dutch Jew who had been in Spain for quite a while. This does not seem to be the case. He was deported first to Portugal and was later to show up in the civilian employ of the World War II German army on the Russian front. He died in Germany in 1989.
There seems to be a genre of fan fiction in Russia that has King Boris ruling Andorra for several years until being deposed by the German puppet Vichy French. They have him dying in a Vichy prison camp in 1944.
The church on the stamp burned in 1972. Lost in the fire was the statue of Mary with Child that dated from the 12th century. The legend was that villagers on the way to church kept finding an out of season rose with the statue at its base. They would place the statue in churches only to find it the next day back by the rose. Eventually they took it as a suggestion to build a church in Meritxell where the statue of Our Lady of Meritxell then sat. The church was rebuilt after the fire and replica of the statue was recast. Meritxell is still a common first name for Andorran females.
Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toaste Andorra. It is a small country though so I think two Princes is enough. Sorry Boris. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.