At 1,710 metres above sea level in Soldeu, where Andorra's Grandvalira ski domain stretches across the eastern Pyrenees, a terracotta-and-timber complex of considerable scale anchors itself to a south-facing slope with the massing of an alpine village rather than a single monolithic block. Sport Hotel Hermitage & Spa is the upper tier of the Sport Hotels group's Soldeu campus, its exterior clad in warm stone and wood-framed balconies that step up the hillside in a rhythm designed to break down what is, in fact, a substantial eight-floor structure of around 124 rooms and suites. The interiors move between two distinct registers depending on where you are in the building. Guest rooms take a restrained contemporary approach — wide-plank oak flooring, slatted timber dividers separating sleeping and bathing zones, freestanding soaking tubs set against concrete-finish walls, the mountain framed squarely through deep-set windows. The dining room shifts to an entirely different warmth: exposed Douglas fir beams and tongue-and-groove ceilings soar above floor-to-ceiling glazing, the furniture running to tan leather banquettes, upholstered wool chairs in flannel grey, and branch-form chandeliers that carry an organic Pyrenean character. The spa, which anchors the lowest levels, counters all of this with a more formal architectural language — mosaic-tiled columns rising through a multi-level pool hall, cedar ceiling panels curving overhead, and a wall of timber-framed glazing pulling the treeline directly into the water.

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