Overview
The inundation of the historic town of Portomarín (Lugo, Spain) in 1963, following the construction of the Belesar reservoir during the Franco regime, resulted in the loss of a medieval settlement of exceptional heritage value situated on the Way of St James. The interdisciplinary project ‘Portomarín Virtual’ was established in 2023 to mitigate this loss by creating a new historical and digital record, aimed at recovering silenced heritage alongside personal and collective memory.
The project represents a pioneering initiative in digital heritage recovery, providing a replicable model for other lost and silenced sites. Adopting a rigorous interdisciplinary methodology, the study synthesises photographic and cartographic material to reconstruct the urban landscape, thereby safeguarding the historical memory and cultural identity of the community. It underscores the scientific significance of this digital work and immersive 3D tour, which serves as a critical response to heritage depredation and transforms historical data and oral testimonies into an experience with substantial educational potential.
In 2024, the project was awarded ‘Best Tool, Resource, or Infrastructure’ by the International Society for Hispanic Digital Humanities (HDH). Furthermore, in 2025, the initiative was selected for the European 3DBigDataSpace project, coordinated by the Time Machine Organisation (TMO), enabling the inclusion of the virtual reconstruction and its associated metadata in the Zenodo and Europeana repositories.
Project partners
Lead partners
Other partners
- CIAG (Centro Infográfico Avanzado de Galicia - Advanced Infographic Center of Galicia)
