Documented
A dated document says so, or it can be seen and measured in a source.
Mequinenza · Bajo Cinca · Aragon
The Poble Vell (the old village) of Mequinenza as it was in 1965
The village on the Ebro that was demolished from 1970 onwards to make way for the Riba-roja reservoir. We are rebuilding it house by house from old photographs, plans and the 1956–57 American aerial survey, and for each house we say what we know and what we don’t.
- the year we are reconstructing
- 1965
- houses, each with its own record
- 541
- street and place names
- 97
- demolition begins
- 1970
- the reservoir that led to the demolition
- Riba-roja
What we know and how we know it
Three levels · never percentages · always the source
Each house says what we know about it, and what we don’t
We separate what can be seen in a document, what we deduce from photos, shadows and plans, and what we do not know yet. We show it with a word, a symbol and a border, never with colour alone.
Each house has two summaries: its shape (footprint, heights and roof) and its appearance (façade and colour).
Archive photos are cited house by house. They will be shown once we have permission to publish them.
Inferred
We deduce it from photos, shadows and plans, using a method we explain in each record.
Hypothetical
No source shows it. We use the most likely option and say so.
A real example: Caserón del portal de arco, in Plaça d'Armes
A · Document
Archive photo · awaiting permissionMUNI_plaza_512 · Colección municipal de Mequinenza
B · Reconstruction
C · How we know
| Feature | Level | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Footprint | Inferred | 4 |
| Storeys | Inferred | 3 |
| Eaves height | Inferred | 1 |
| Roof | Inferred | 9 |
| Façade | Hypothetical | 0 |
- Shape
- Inferred
- Appearance
- Hypothetical
MQN-BLD-0434 · Plaça d'Armes (Plaza de Armas) · shape: inferred · appearance: hypothetical · 12 sources · sin revisar
Streets and places
Catalan names, with the Spanish alongside
A street, a house, without waiting for the 3D model
Every street and every house has its own page, with its names, its sources and what we know about it. They open straight away, even on a basic phone.
The central squares and the streets with the most houses
- squarePlaça d'ArmesPlaza de Armas6 houses
- small squarePlaceta MissaPlaza de Missa4 houses
- squarePlaça de Ca la VilaPlaza del Ayuntamiento1 house
- streetCarrer MajorCalle Mayor21 houses
- streetCarrer SaragossaCalle Zaragoza56 houses
- promenadeLo MuroEl Muro31 houses
- streetCarrer NouCalle Nueva29 houses
- streetCarrer MagdalenaCalle Magdalena25 houses
- streetCarrer de Santa AgatòquiaCalle Santa Agatoclia23 houses
- streetCarrer de les CreusCalle de las Cruces22 houses
- streetCarrer del CalvariCalle del Calvario20 houses
- streetCarrer de les PedresCalle de las Piedras19 houses
What already exists
Memory, photos and a route: complements, not substitutes
The village’s memory already has a home
This reconstruction adds to what the town and its institutions already look after. For photos, memories or a walk around what remains, start here.
Centro de Estudios Jesús Moncada
Since 2018, «La memòria dels carrers» has been bringing former residents together, street by street, to collect memories, documents and photos.
A session of «La memòria dels carrers», on the Museos de Mequinenza website (another website)
Museos de Mequinenza
‘Imágenes para la Memoria’ (Images for Memory): a map of nearly 300 photographs of the old village, each placed where it was taken, created in 2020 from «La memòria dels carrers». The map has since been taken down; the project page is still online.
Imágenes para la Memoria (another website)
The old village, on the Museos de Mequinenza website (another website)
The Town Council’s Poble Vell route
Since 2013, the Town Council has offered a 10-stop route around what remains of the old village, with audio guides in four languages.
The route and its audio guides, on the Town Council’s website (another website)
An open project
It grows with local people’s photos and memories
Help us rebuild the Poble Vell house by house
This reconstruction is a living project: it is not finished, and it never entirely will be. Every photo, every memory and every correction can change a house. The older people who lived in the village, and their families, are the ones who can help most.
Progress
The village is being rebuilt area by area
The latest work
La Magdalena y el Calvari, estrechas como eran
Después del Carrer Saragossa tocaban las dos calles que suben de ella hacia el castillo. […]
El Carrer Saragossa, con su anchura
El Carrer Saragossa del modelo era casi el doble de ancho que el de verdad. […]
La Fàbrica de Regalíssia, en su sitio
Las naves de la fábrica de regaliz estaban unos 13 metros al oeste de donde tocaban. La primera lectura supuso el sol por el lado equivocado y midió una foto con una escala que no era. […]