Cave paintings
Visiting the Cave Paintings of Cogul
The history of the discoveries of these cave paintings in Catalonia is quite recent -no more that 70 years old- and the scientific research started in these caves is even more recent.
Most of these discoveries have never been the result of a methodical work, or a research program neither, carried by historians. They have been done by amateurs and people of the zone, and have occurred casually.
In the years 1900 and 1919, there is notice of the deposit of La Roca Dels Moros of Cogul. This discovery drew the attention of many European researchers and implied, without any doubts, an impulse to the research in the area of cave paintings in Catalonia.
The news of that discovery spread quickly in the scientific world, because it constituted an innovation in the pre-historical manifestations in Catalonia and the rest of the Peninsula.
The deposit demonstrated the existence of a 'Palaeolithic' art unknown until the moment. Some of the elements of the fauna represented on the Roca dels Moros have been clue elements in the study of cave paintings.
The documentation of this paintings dates from the year 1986, discovering different motifs, mainly carved, and unknown until that moment.
The deposit of Cogul is very near the capital of Lérida -accessing from the road that leads to the airport on the direction of Alfés, Alcanó, and Granyena de les Garrigues- and is surrounded by a flora and fauna typical of the zone.
Besides admiring the historical cave paintings of Cogul, visitors can also do other activities such as excursions, trekking, photography, etc. All of it always surrounded by vegetation: firs, black pines, wild pines, beeches… and an autochthonous fauna: foxes, moles, royal eagles…
