Rock Paintings in Las Batuecas

This is a deep remote valley 14 km from La Alberca, village which has been declared Historical Site, where we can find some remains of Neolithic settlements and traces of our ancestors. This is secret preserved valley, located in Las Batuecas Natural Park, a place for spiritual retirement; there is a Carmelite convent and some old hermitages.

In the valley there are fifteen rock-shelters, with Neolithic paintings, around 7000-5000 years old which hide an artistic secret: it is the best schematic painting site in Salamanca, regarding the Post-Paleolithic Art.

The figures represent simple drawings of animals and human beings, drawn with lines and dots, using colours such as ochre, red, black, yellow and white.

All the rock shelters have been declared Cultural Interest Items and some of them such as El Canchal de las Cabras Pintadas has been awarded with a specific declaration.

El Canchal de las Cabras Pintadas, Canchal del Aguila, Canchales de la Pizarra, Canchales del Zarzalon, Cueva del Cristo or Canchal de Villita are some of the samples of this old archaeological treasure. There is a path wit signs which lead to the different rock-shelters.

Archaeological Tutorial and Interpretation Centre

In La Alberca you can visit the Archaeological Tutorial and Interpretation Centre of the rock paintings from Las Batuecas

There are different rooms where you will be able to get to know the amazing symbolic world of the early inhabitants who painted in the Neolithic on the rock-shelters or “canchales” of the valley some figures and many schematic symbols which are very difficult to understand.

The tutorial also offers information about the hermits of the valley; the Carmelite priests settled there in the 16th century, first of all in some cave, and then in the Monastery called “Desierto de San Jose”, which is still a haven of peace.