Parque Arqueologico do Vale do Coa

About

Previous booking strongly advised! The Côa valley is a unique place in the world, displaying open-air artistic manifestations from different moments of prehistoric, protohistoric and historic times, namely the greatest assembly of Ice Age open-air engravings presently known. This extraordinary rock art collection is distributed along two main axes: the river Côa and the river Douro, of which the Côa is a tributary. More than a thousand schist outcrops with rock art manifestations are known, in more than 70 different sites, with a predominance of Upper Paleolithic art, followed by motifs belonging to the Iron Age, Historic times and Late Prehistory. As a recognition of the cultural and scientific interest of this group of findings, the Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa (Côa Valley Archaeological Park) was created in 1996 and the rock art sites inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1998.

At a glance

• Typical visit: about 1 hour 30 minutes