First published: 18/08/14.

Clyde 2.0

Coa Valley And Siega Verde

Coa Valley and Siega Verde (Inscribed)

Coa Valley and Siega Verde by Clyde

I visited this WHS in August 2014. It's the first WHS I visited while in Portugal and it was quite an achievement to get there by car. The winding roads are in very good condition and the Coa Museum is a modern structure perched high up above the valley. There are enough parking spaces even for the summer months as I don't think it is ever packed with tourists. Having visited the rock drawings of Alta in Norway and the ones in Valcamonica in Italy, I thought that this transnational WHS was their equivalent. Well, I'm afraid to say that it definitely wasn't. I'm still happy that this WHS made it on the list if this meant preventing an industrial plant or a useless dam being built instead. The landscape is gorgeous and it's a beautiful continuation of the Alto Douro WHS. The engravings of the Coa Valley are extremely fragile and most of them are very small and hard to appreciate without a magnifying glass and good sunlight. Some examples were on display inside the Coa Museum and even with a magnifying glass and good lighting it was difficult to appreciate them. I went on a morning 4x4 tour to the sites of Penascosa and Canada do Inferno and did a long hike to the Vale de Cabrões site to see the deer engravings on Rock 1 which turned out to be the most visible engraving of my visit (picture). Perhaps filling them in with red ocre (like they did in Alta) would help to be able to better appreciate the engravings even though I suspect that most of them are to small to be filled in! So on the whole I'm glad I visited one of the most remote WHS in mainland Portugal but I don't think I will be visiting again any time soon!

Comments

No comments yet.

Log in to post a comment