The Civil Guard investigates the demolition of a 5,000 -year -old menhir in Toledo | Spain

The Nature Protection Service of the Civil Guard (Seprona) and the Government of Castilla-La Mancha They investigate the demolitiona few days ago, of a menhir more than 5,000 years old in Gamonal, a minor entity of Talavera de la Reina (Toledo). He has been the researcher Miguel Méndez, a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Historical Sciences of Toledo (Rabacht), which, in a message published in X, has criticized the neglect of the administrations after the monument appeared lying on the agricultural farm in which it was erected: “They demolish the Gamonal menhir and the administrations still do not do anything to preserve it. Heritage, ”Méndez laments in the aforementioned social network.

The provincial delegate of Culture, José Gutiérrez, has sent a requirement to the Talavera City Council, governed by PP and Vox, to know the scope of the damages suffered by the Megalith. In the brief, to which the country has had access, it is requested that the property of the plot in which the element within a minimum radius of five meters are urged to be urged To protect it of any agricultural activity or risk that could further aggravate its delicate situation. The menhir – a granite mole two meters high and one wide by the base – is part of the catalog of protected goods and spaces of Talavera and that appears the autonomous executive to urge the Talaverano City Council to ensure its protection.

The Board rejects in another letter sent to the Consistory the transfer of the monolith to a safer place, arguing that the historical value of the piece lies precisely in its original location. Gutiérrez argues that « the transfer itself represents a risk to the physical integrity of the piece » and opens to evaluate its declaration as a good of cultural or patrimonial interest to grant it « an additional protection environment. » The mayor of Gamonal, Álvaro Jerónimo (PSOE) claims to the Talavera City Council the restitution of the monument to its original position. « Among the competences we have are not those of Heritage, » Jerónimo explains to El País, who shares the concern of the neighbors: « It is not understood that a good of our municipality is like this. »

Méndez, who discovered the Menhir in 1990, asks that it act urgently to prevent the same fate as the one for several years ago near the Navalcán reservoir, in the municipality of Oropesa. « He was known as El Menhir de Parrillas, he was shot down and then stolen without his whereabouts being known. » Both Menhires – graphically remember the writer – are like the one that is obélix in the Goscinny and Uderzo comic and have as a distinctive element the “Cazoletas”, “some semi -manical gaps carved in the rock that, according to various theories, could be used to make certain rituals or as astronomical or geographical maps”. He registered, he counts, in Extremadura megalitism.

« The following is to take it with a tractor shovel and take it, » warns the researcher, who asks administrations that better preserve this type of archaeological elements that, he remembers, can help energize tourism in the area. « The scrape, so to speak, that may have suffered, has not greatly harmed it, but you have to preserve it, put some panel explaining its history and cultural value, » he remarks. The menhir has already suffered a slight inclination, probably, explains, for some kind of agricultural work until, now, it has completely fallen. Méndez is committed to maintaining the menhir in its original location, but for that, it remarks, « you have to assure it so that it cannot be destroyed or usurped. »