First published: 01/05/05.

David Berlanda 1.0

Rock Art Of The Mediterranean Basin

Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin (Inscribed)

Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin by David Berlanda

It was very hard to find on the Internet for our trip around Spain a rock art site of those being part of this WHS satisfying the criteria I had in my mind for choosing one of them: proximity to our Spanish itinerary, good accessibility without too much walking - they are often situated at high altitudes far away from main roads - … possibly a cave with a guided tour - but I didn’t find one available without booking and there is also the fact that this sites are mainly shelters.

Finally I chose the site of Cabra Feixet in Catalonia near El Perolló putting my trust in this two Spanish web pages: http://www.xtec.es/centres/e3001929/cabra/cabra2.htm and http://www.arqueomurcia.com/arterupestre/catalu/feixet.htm. From this descriptions with map it seemed to me that it was easily accessible, but I was wrong.

You have to take the road going from El Perolló to Rasquera and after 7 km you will find without problems on your left a sign telling you that the rock art site is 3,5 km from there (we didn’t notice that there was also written with pencil in French that it is quite impossible to reach it by car – maybe a desperate tourist had left it).

So we ventured with our car to a road that after 1 km turned out to be unsurfaced, extremely narrow and endless. We couldn’t turn back the car and go away and, risking to have an accident, had to arrive to the parking (it seemed incredible that this road, that ended there, had been designed expressly for reaching the rock art site). Here some unclear signs bring you, in much more than the 10 and 25 minutes written there, to the highly disappointing site of Cabra Feixet, a small prehistoric shelter protected by a cage, where might be 13 red painted figures, but only 3 are clearly visible - a hunter and two animals - and to some shelters without paintings not being part of the WHS.

Certainly the landscape in which it is situated, with spectacular rocks and a luxuriant vegetation, is more interesting than the rock art site itself.

Now, an advice: don’t go there, above all not with a common car. It is one of the most disappointing WHS I have ever seen. Maybe I have just chosen the wrong site and probably there are much better places included in this WHS (there are also municipalities with more than 50 rock art sites while Cabra Feixet is the only one in El Perolló). Certainly Cabra Feixet doesn’t deserve its inscription. However I have seen only this site, so I can’t say if the overall site deserves it. But I’m sure that there will be also other sites like this, so the inscription of 727 places on the WHL, even if they constitute the largest group of rock art sites in Europe, is excessive and could be inscribed only the most representative sites that probably deserve their place on the WHL. This sites are generally in the middle of nowhere so their conservation and authenticity is certainly perfect.

The most similar WHS to this that I have ever visited is that of the prehistoric sites of the Vézère Valley in France, where the paintings are quite similar to those of Cabra Feixet, in a much bigger extension, much more worthy of being visited and certainly deserving their place on the List.

In the picture are the three red figures of the shelter Cabra Feixet: a hunter and two animals.

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