Campo Lameiro: the carved rocks of Galicia's open-air museum

On the hillsides of Campo Lameiro, in the heart of the province of Pontevedra, the bare granite tells stories thousands of years old. This rural Galician municipality, in the valley of the river Lerez, holds the greatest concentration of prehistoric rock carvings in Galicia, earning it the nickname of the Galician Altamira.

An open-air gallery of prehistory

The Archaeological Park of Rock Art, opened in 2011 as the first of its kind in Galicia, spreads over some 22 hectares and protects around a hundred engraved stones. Their spirals, circles and figures of deer and other animals were cut between roughly 4,000 and 2,000 years ago, in the late Neolithic and the Bronze Age. A visitor centre, a reconstructed Bronze Age settlement and a signposted trail of more than three kilometres help bring the carvings to life, and guided night visits use raking light to reveal the designs.

Beyond the petroglyphs

More engravings dot the countryside around the village, including near the hillfort of Penalba, set in a green landscape of oak woods and river valleys typical of inland Pontevedra.

Getting there

Campo Lameiro is about 25 kilometres north-east of the city of Pontevedra, within easy reach of Caldas de Reis and the Rias Baixas.