Rock art

The people of the Palaeolithic and Neolithic eras left us with an important artistic legacy: rock paintings in caves, shelters and exposed rocks. The rock art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. In the Prades mountains there are more than forty rock art sites, one third of the total in Catalonia, almost twenty of which are in the Capçanes municipality, and important paintings are also found in Ulldecona and El Cògul. These are examples of Levantine art, made by to hunter-gatherers, and schematic art, in this case by farmers and breeders of livestock. 2019 marks two hundred years since the discovery of the first cave with rock art in Catalonia, the Portell de les Lletres, in the Prades Mountains. In Montblanc we can visit the CIAR (Centre d’Interpretación de l’Art Rupestre), an important centre for education about and conservation of the paintings found in the Prades Mountains.