he church of Santa Maria de Arties is one of the standards of Aranese Romanesque architecture. The building has a basilica-type triple-nave ground plan, originally headed by three apses, of which only the sides now remain. The central nave has a barrel vault in which structural damage has caused openings in the vault, which are still evident in the form of falling pilasters. Repair work carried out in 1999 largely solved these problems.

The building maintains two access facades, one in the south wall and the other facing north. The facade which opens north does not have a tympanum but has six vaulted semicircular decreasing arches with chequered decorative motifs and semi-spherical buttons. The door which leads south, to the cemetery, is based on three semicircular decreasing arches.
To the west there is a five-floor belfry with a pyramidal roof. Its style straddles the Romanesque and Gothic periods, which means that it was probably built between the 13th and 14th centuries.

The mark left by the Gothic epoch on Santa Maria de Arties is magnificently embodied in the wall paintings of the roof of the presbytery and an altarpiece only recently restored by the Servei de Conservació de Béns Moble de Sant Cugat. The 15th century altarpiece represents different bible scenes portraying the Virgin Mary and is a masterpiece of Gothic Painting.