Elsevier

Resources Policy

Volume 75, March 2022, 102528
Resources Policy

The historical quarry of pena (Vila Real, north of Portugal): Associated cultural heritage and reuse as a geotourism resource

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2021.102528Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Abandoned historic quarries are a resource with tourist and economic potential.

  • Natural stones and historical quarries have links to cultural heritage.

  • Cultural heritage built with heritage stones is a unique and unrepeatable legacy for future generations.

  • Petrography is an essential technique for identifying heritage stones.

Abstract

Stone created and still creates cultural heritage in landscapes, villages and cities all over the world. Granite was and still is a crucial building stone in Galicia-North Portugal Euroregion. Ancient quarries, forms of extraction and buildings built with it are a heritage we should safeguard. This work details a practical case of sustainable use of a granite historical quarry in Pena (Vila Real, North Portugal). A geotourism itinerary would bring new life to this abandoned quarry. A proposed route connects the quarry with the main buildings and monuments built with its granite in the nearby city of Vila Real. It envisages an eighteen-stop tour of the buildings and monuments built with Pena granite. The proposal includes a geotourism excursion through this impressive quarry, which forms an open-air geological museum.

The implementation of this project has two aims. First, to revive the historical quarry of Pena. Second, to promote the sustainable conservation of cultural heritage by creating an inventory of buildings of Vila Real city built with granite from Pena. Thus, it will enable the economic development of local communities using built heritage linked to heritage stones. The quarry of Pena will be a source of granite for possible future restorations of the historical buildings built with it. Environmental economics relates to geotourism, cultural tourism and the sustainable use of historical quarries.

Introduction

Stones have been widely used in traditional and historical buildings and infrastructures; the interaction of human beings with these materials has developed since ancient times. Natural stones have close ties to cultural heritage (Tomás et al., 2021). Humans have used this resource ever since they sought shelter by escarpments, in caves and under inverted slopes. These protected them from inclement weather and attacks (Sparacello et al., 2020; Freire-Lista, 2021). For the most part, humans used stone, now considered heritage stone, as a building material (Cooper et al., 2013; Cole, 2018; Ehling, 2018; Grissom et al., 2018). The first building stones came from the vicinity of the place where they would be used (Přikryl, R. and Török, 2010; Primavori and Angheben, 2020). People used stone to manufacture mortars (Elsen et al., 2004; Delgado Rodrigues and Costa, 2016), ceramics (Sanjurjo-Sánchez et al., 2016), bricks (Pérez et al., 2016; Martínez et al., 2016), and mosaics (Lysandrou et al., 2017). Examples of heritage stones show marked relevance in human culture (Pereira et al., 2015; Navarro et al., 2019).

Geodiversity encompasses the natural range of geological, geomorphological, and soil features. These include their assemblages, relationships, properties, interpretations, and systems (Insua Pereira et al., 2013; Brilha, 2016; Schrodt et al., 2019). Education is key to promoting responsible citizenship towards the geological environment. An informed society will appreciate its value and will make wise decisions about protecting geodiversity and archaeology. In part, it is the essence of local culture and society (Azman et al., 2010; Khoukhouchi et al., 2018; Freire-Lista and Fort, 2019a, 2019b). Geotourism, a form of tourism that focuses on geology and landscape (Panizza, 2001; Newsome and Dowling, 2010; Dongying et al., 2012; Singh and Subhash, 2013) is a fast-growing area due to pandemic restrictions. Local travellers appreciate natural and anthropic landscapes that are a niche area of the local tourism economy (Insua Pereira et al., 2015).

The creation of routes through geological sites of scientific importance stimulates geotourism. These routes can include archaeological, natural and cultural sites. If they are near populated areas or big cities, they will be the focus of many tourists (Citiroglu et al., 2017; Dowling and Newsome, 2017; Medina-Viruel et al., 2019). Geosites and their geodiversity, natural or human-modified, is a sustainable source of resources for villages, which can develop geotouristic routes that spread out tourism less populated areas (Hall and Zeppel, 1990a, 1990b; Newsome and Dowling, 2010; Manríquez et al., 2019).

Heritage stones, geoconservation, and geotourism are concepts worthy of being taught at all educational levels. Thus, the entire society and public and private entities can safeguard this natural resource in a sustainable way (Kubalíková et al., 2021; Salameh et al., 2021). Several needs emerge: first, to heighten the public profile of historical quarries; second, to develop new methods to highlight their scientific, cultural, aesthetic and social/economic values; third, to protect them under a legal framework (Kozłowski, 2004; Reynard and Panizza, 2007). It is necessary to balance individual elements of the natural environment, the local economy, and education to achieve sustainable social development (Crofts et al., 2021; Mihai, 2021).

In early agricultural settlements in northern Portugal, engraving or carving on granite stones was frequent (Sanches, 2003, 2006), and in the early metal societies (Chalcolithic) granite was also used to sculpt statutes or menhir steles (Sanches 2003).

Dolmens, known as “antas” in Galicia-North Portugal Euroregion, were frequent in this area. Usually, these consist of granite slabs, even when their source area was remote. Open-air rock art depicting weapons was a form of landscape appropriation and construction in northwestern Iberia (Fábregas Valcarce and Rodríguez-Rellán, 2015). Thus, human groups discovered their own identity and association with the surrounding stones. Burials in pits or cysts with funeral trousseau were a feature of the Bronze Age (Méndez Fernández, 1994; Lull et al., 2013). Also, bronze casting moulds, most carved in granite, are kept in museums of Galicia-North Portugal Euroregion.

At the beginning of the Iron Age, open villages vanished from the landscape and were replaced by the Castro culture (ca. 850/800–400 BCE). Castros or hillforts became the only type of settlement in the region up until the Roman period. These were often in strategic positions, fortified by artificial structures such as ramparts or ditches. Houses had circular or rectangular floor plans. There were fireplaces and ovens, storage areas, and spaces for social and religious gatherings, most of them built with granite.

The pre-Roman roots Mor (r), Mur (r), and Mour mean, or are related, to stone. These roots are found in many place names and surnames in the Galicia-North Portugal Euroregion. For example, Montemuro, Moreiras, Mouçós, Moura Morta, São Martinho de Mouros and Murça. Other earlier place names and surnames evince ties to stone and quarries. These are Pedrado, Pedrosa, Pedronelo, Pena, Penaboa, Penha, Penedo, Penedono, and Penaboa (Freire-Lista et al., 2016a), among many others. Long-term dependency and presence of stone gave and still give historical depth to the landscapes of northwestern Iberia.

Rome's presence in Galicia-North Portugal Euroregion starts in the mid-2nd century BC. Quarries supplied stone to build large hillforts. These had massive walls of ashlars and or masonry, often of granite, that protected communal and ritual buildings (Calo Lourido, 1994; Rodriguez-Corral, 2019). Walls were emplekton, which consist of two parallel lines of masonry filled with rubble. One example is the fortified village of Castroeiro (Mondim de Basto, north Portugal) (Dinis and Bettencourt, 2009, Pereira Dinis, 1993, Pereira Dinis, 2001, UNE-EN 1936, 2007), which dates from the 4th century BC to the first 1st century BC. Castroeiro has regular ashlars with pseudo trapezoidal plans, pseudo rectangular faces with careful carving and semi-polished exposed surfaces (Freire-Lista, 2021), which denotes an early refined granite carving technique in this Euroregion.

Vila Real is the traditional capital of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (Fig. 1). This region is bounded to the east and to the north by the border with Spain, and to the west by the mountains of Marão, Alvão, and Gerês, which separate the interior from the coast. The Douro river runs along the southern boundary. These natural barriers kept this part of Portugal depopulated and poor for several centuries. It led to the conservation of customs and a rich archaeological heritage rooted in its rugged surroundings. There are numerous pre-Roman and Roman vestiges in the current municipality of Vila Real (Alfoldy, 1997). Panóias sanctuary was in the largest administrative and ecclesiastical centre of the region in the period between the Roman occupation and the first centuries of Portugal as an independent kingdom. This sanctuary preserves three inscriptions carved in granite. These inscriptions were commissioned for a high official of a regional government under the orders of Rome (ca. end of 2nd/beginning of 3rd century AD). The territory of Panóias, dating from the Suevo-Visigothic period, it was a parish of the Braga diocese. The Suevo Parochial of the diocese of Braga, relating to the 6th and 7th centuries, indicates that there were Christian communities, and even duly organized ecclesiastical districts in the most distant regions of that city and even in the rural and mountainous areas of Trás-os- Montes. The borough of Constantim de Panoias was recognized in the charter letter in 1096 of Count D. Henrique and D. Teresa (Marqués da Silva, 2012). From the 11th century on, documents show two nuclei in this territory. One was the economic, administrative and judicial centre in Constantim de Panóias, also known as Feira de Constantim. The other was the military and defensive centre in the Castelo de São Cristóvão de Panóias.

Constantim emerged as a nucleus without a wall, linked to the road network and commerce. The military centre of Terra de Panóias was in a castle that dominated the Corgo river Valley. A walled town, documented in the 12th and 13th centuries, lay next to the stronghold. Pope Alexander III issued the Manifestis probatum bull in 1179, which declared the Portucalense County independent from the Kingdom of León. King Alfonso III envisaged founding a town called Vila Real in 1272. Later, King Dinis carried this out from 1289 to 1293. Thus, he created a fortified urban hub with capital status in the old territory of Terra de Panóias. That is, King Dinis declared this royal town (Vila Real) to be the head of all Panóias. Vila Real historic centre sits on a Variscan granite promontory made by the confluence of the Corgo and Cabril rivers. The deep valleys act as natural barriers and the outcropping granite was used as building stone (For example, São Brás Chapel). Five hundred settlers would get and exchange land and populate the territory around Vila Real. The monarch called the area A Redonda, which had rights over the monasteries of São Martinho de Caramos and São Miguel de Refoios de Basto. The area comprised Sesmires, Parada de Cunhos, Veiga do Cabril, Montezelos, Timpeira and Vilalva, joined in 1293 by Vila Seca and Vila Nova. Granite landmarks, each with a shield and sword, marked the territory. Four of these landmarks were still in their original position in 1721. Currently, there are two in the Vila Velha Museum of Vila Real. Romanesque churches began to be built after the arrival of the settlers (Campos et al., 2021a, 2021b).

The 1703 Methuen Treaty between Portugal and England stimulated Port wine output in the territory surrounding Vila Real. High production reshaped the landscape, and vineyards started to stretch across wine production farms, called “Quintas”. Overproduction led to the founding of the General Agricultural Company of the Alto Douro Vineyards in 1756. Minister Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, future Marquis de Pombal, created the Douro Wine Company with them aim of demarcating, regulating, and controlling the Alto Douro wine region (Lourenço-Gomes et al., 2020).

By 1757, two hundred and one granite landmarks demarcated the wine-growing area. A further 134 parallelepipedal ones with a smooth finish joined them in 1761. On each main face was an engraved word, “Feitoria”. Some were engraved with the date of installation. The landmarks delimit a region in the middle section of the Douro Valley and part of its tributaries. These lie between Barqueiros and Freixo de Espada à Cinta. Most of the wine-producing region sits on metasedimentary materials and it is subdivided into Lower Corgo, Upper Corgo and Upper Douro (Andresen et al., 2004).

Landowners began to build large baroque palaces near the vineyards and perimeter granitic areas served as a source of granite. Usually, granite was used for balustrades, stairs, shields, sculptures and ornamental elements of palaces, while their walls were built with meta-sedimentary stones (Barroso et al., 2018). Most granite development in the Trás-os-Montes area occurred during this time.

By 1946, much of the Pombaline landmarks had become sites of public interest and later catalogued. In 2001, UNESCO placed the Alto Douro wine region on its World Heritage list, and it is a National Monument since 2010 (Lourenço-Gomes et al., 2015; Assumma et al., 2021).

Railway line construction was another milestone in the use of granite (Fort et al., 2013). The government initiated railway projects to connect the city of Porto with the north of the country in 1867. These would advance the mobility of the inhabitants of Trás-os-Montes region. Yet, the prime purpose for building the Douro line was to transport goods, foremost, Port wine. Until then, wine barrels were transported in boats down the Douro river to Porto. After Porto's connection with the European rail network through Salamanca, three new lines appeared in Trás-os-Montes. They followed courses of rivers from which they took their names: Sabor, Tua, and Corgo.

The Sabor line transported cargo such as iron ore from mines in Torre de Moncorvo, marble, and alabaster of Santo Adrião in Vimioso. The inauguration of the last section took place in 1938. The Tua line, completed in 1906, linked this town with Bragança. Work on the Corgo line, drafted in the 19th century, ended in 1921. It connected the thermal water towns of Vidago and Pedras Salgadas, as well as Vila Pouca de Aguiar, Vila Real, and Chaves. The inauguration of the iron and granite bridge over the Corgo River in Vila Real took place in 1904.

Industrialization, transport development and new materials led to the abandonment of historic quarries. They are essential for conserving built heritage (Bulakh et al., 2019, 2020; Cavallo et al., 2019; Zalooli et al., 2020). The use of traditional heritage stones for rural constructions declined in the Alto Douro Vinhateiro. It led to notable changes in the cultural landscape of this UNESCO World Heritage. The Heritage Stone Sub-commission (HSS), under the auspices of the International Commission on Geoheritage (ICG) of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), works to raise awareness of the heritage importance of natural stones (Garg et al., 2019; Frascá et al., 2020; Hannibal and Schnabel, 2020; Kölbl-Ebert and Cooper, 2019), as well as to preserve their historical quarries, emphasizing the importance of Heritage Stones in the preservation of World Heritage Sites (Hughes et al., 2013; Almeida and Begonha, 2014; Costa, 2014; De Wever et al., 2016; Castro et al., 2022). Abandoned historical quarries can be reused generating economic profitability. Historical quarries can become open-air museums, with hiking trails going through them. These actions can promote local employment and conservation of built heritage (Dino et al., 2013; Germinario et al., 2017a, 2017b).

Section snippets

The historic stonework in pena (Vila Real)

Identification of historical quarries draws on geology, archaeology, history, and other disciplines (Kramar et al., 2019; Shaffer, 2019; Sharma, 2019).

There are several historical quarries in Picarreira mountain (Pena, Vila Real). Other heritage vestiges include the Tambor do Diablo (the devil's drum) found on this mountain's peak. It is a natural cave made up of granite slabs and blocks. If someone moves these in a given way, it makes a noise that echoes throughout the Marão Valley. Surnames

Geological settings

Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro region is the result of a complex assemblage history of continental collision and extension. In the Lower Paleozoic, several continental blocks collided, resulting in the Variscan Orogeny. It is the main event of the Iberian lithosphere's formation (Matte, 1986, 1991, 2001; Arenas et al., 2016; Ribeiro et al., 2007). The later Mesozoic rifting and breakup of Pangea into Laurasia and Gondwana had a profound effect on the continental crust of the western border of

Methodology

A granite block was extracted from the historical quarry of Picarreira mountain (near Lat. 41.296957, near Long. −7.815883). Six cubic samples (5 × 5 ×5 ± 0.5 cm) of Pena granite were cut at low speed (120 rpm) and low strain and were polished (Freire-Lista et al., 2020).

In addition, two thin sections were made and characterized under a polarized light microscope. A Leica DM750P microscope equipped with a Leica MC 120 HD digital camera and LAS 4.3 software was used.

A visual inspection was

Results

An important historical granite quarry was discovered in the Picarreira mountain, which reaches a height of 1039 m above sea level and from where it is possible to admire an extraordinary panorama of the city of Vila Real. It is an equigranular medium crystal-size granite. The average crystal size is 2 mm (Fig. 3).

Geotourism route through the historic centre of Vila Real

Construction with Pena granite reached its maximum splendour in the first half of the 20th century, that is, during the periods of Art Nouveau architecture (approximately 1905–1920), Modernist architecture (1920–1940), and Modern and Estado Novo Architecture (1933–1974).

The urban bourgeoisie of the early 20th century demanded the use of granite for Art Nouveau architectural elements. The floristic, naturalistic and curvilinear ornamental decoration was a constant in the details of the

Route through pena village and the historical quarries of picarreira mountain

Pena village retains numerous vestiges of historical stonework and a profuse use of it. There are numerous gate lintels that retain the construction date carved on them, as well as houses with carved ashlars, granite pinnacles, and roadside granite crosses and fountains. As rural heritage, “Alminhas” exist at the crossroads between paths, or on secondary roads to access rural settlements. They are granite stones sculpted with different motifs. The purpose of alminhas is to remember the souls of

Closing remarks

Pena granite forms part of the region of Vila Real's tangible and intangible heritage. It was used as a building stone in Vila Real city for its most important buildings of the twentieth century. Therefore, heritage buildings bearing this stone form part of Portugal's history and culture, and as such must be conserved for future generations. This resource is of great economic and geotouristic interest.

Documentary search, cartography and petrographic characterisation are necessary to locate the

Author statement

David Martín Freire-Lista: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Writing- Original draft preparation, Writing- Reviewing and Editing.

Javier Eduardo Becerra Becerra: Writing- Original draft preparation, Reviewing and Editing.

Mila Simões de Abreu: Writing- Original draft preparation, Reviewing and Editing.

Funding

This work was supported by FUNDAÇÃO PARA A CIÊNCIA E A TECNOLOGIA of Portugal in the frame of the STIMULUS OF SCIENTIFIC EMPLOYMENT, INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT 2017. [CEECIND/03568/2017] and [UIDB/00073/2020] and [UIDP/00073/2020] projects of the I, D unit Geosciences Centre (CGEO) of Coimbra University (Portugal).

David M. Freire-Lista acknowledges the “Programa IACOBUS” for funding his research stay at the department of physics and earth sciences, of the area of external geodynamics. Universidade da

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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