Lake · Andorra
Estanys de Juclar
The Estanys de Juclar are two small mountain lakes high in the Pyrenees of Andorra, about 2 294 metres above the sea. The bigger one, called Estany Primer, is the largest lake in Andorra.
Picture credit: Rémih (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Estanys de Juclar?
Countries on its shores: Andorra.
Largest lake of: Andorra.
Middle of the lake: 42.61° N, 1.72° E
The story behind it
Andorra is a tiny country in the mountains, and it has 172 lakes – but all of them are small. The biggest are the Estanys de Juclar at the top of the Incles valley. The western lake, Estany Primer (First Lake), covers about 21 hectares. That is about as big as 30 football pitches. The eastern lake, Estany Segon (Second Lake), is much smaller, with about 8 hectares. Between 1933 and 1936, people built a dam that raised the water level of Estany Primer. Water from both lakes flows into a stream that joins the Incles river. Brown trout and brook trout swim in the cold water. Hikers start at a bridge at about 1 834 metres and climb for about two hours to reach the lakes. A mountain hut, the Refugi de Juclar, stands close by, and peaks of more than 2 700 metres rise all around.
Find it on the globe
Estanys de Juclar is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How big are the Estanys de Juclar?
The bigger lake, Estany Primer, covers about 21 hectares, or 0.21 km². The smaller Estany Segon next to it covers about 8 hectares.
Is Estany Primer the largest lake in Andorra?
Yes. Andorra has 172 lakes, and Estany Primer at Juclar is the largest of them, even though it is small compared with lakes in other countries.
How do you get to the lakes?
Hikers walk up from a bridge at about 1 834 metres, and the climb takes about two hours.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
Last checked: