Dinosaurs in Catalonia

Long before the feudal lords built their castles in the hills of Lleida or the Greeks and Romans built their cities on the shores of the Mediterranean, the Pyrenees were inhabited by the dinosaurs. Footprints, bones, fossilized eggs and other remains have been found in several districts of the provinces of Lleida and Barcelona, helping paleontologists learn to understand what life must have been like at the end of the Cretaceous period in what is today Catalonia. In Isone and Conca de Dellà you can visit Cretaci Park, consisting of a museum centre and several fields in which works are ongoing. The Orígens Geopark encompasses the parts of the province of Lleida of exceptional geological value. It is part of the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network. In the Epicentre, the visitors’ centre of Pallars Jussà explains the importance of the Geopark, in terms both of natural and cultural heritage, and on the first floor they have an interesting exhibition called the Earth and Geology of the Dinosaurs. Another interesting option is Dinosfera, in the town of Coll de Nargó.