Several crates of beer have also re-emerged. The phenomenon made possible by the drastic lowering of the level of a watershed, which brought to light a ghost village
The GHOST VILLAGE reappeared after 30 years underwater: here’s what has emerged
# Roads and houses raised from the water
A dam, built as part of an agreement between Francisco Franco’s Spain and Antonio Salazar’s Portugal in the late 1960s, had submerged the village of Aceredo, in Galicia.
Today’s dryness dropped dramatically the level of the reservoir, bringing the village “back to the surface”, offering a scenario as desolate as it is fascinating.
Aceredo thus becomes a destination for curious tourists, as well as an Instagram star. The big appeal is to discover which items had been buried along with what remains of the houses. Let’s see how the story began.
# Beginning and end of the story
Life in Aceredo officially stops in 1992, the year of the inauguration of the Alto Lindoso dam, necessary for the exploitation of the waters of river Lima, to produce electricity and massive uses in Portugal. Basically, the story begins to stop even earlier, in 1968, when Francisco Franco leaves no way out to its residents, deciding to sacrifice Aceredo on the altar of progress, slowly forcing the natives to find a home elsewhere: some Galicians were ultimately forced to move against their will.
The natives of Aceredo abandon everything as it is, with the unforgiving countdown hanging over them: the moment when the waters would begin to cover up everything that for them were homes, roads, and belongings.
30 years later, the drought gives back the image of a village abandoned in a rush.
# Interesting facts about the phenomenon
To think that there was once a vibrant life there, the idea that an entire village emerged from nowhere, all this has sparked the fantasy and curiosity of tourists who today can wander in the silence of Aceredo, imagining children’s races and games, family reunions and buzzing city streets.
The re-emerged village is practically all accessible today. There is mud everywhere, the stone houses are still standing, with their roofs collapsed. Bricks and tiles are, together with many other debris, stacked just everywhere. Some of the stacks are able to testify the moment of the immersion, in 1992, they make you understand from which side the water came. It’s easy to understand that others have been moved now, perhaps to secure the area.
# Post-modern archaeology relics
The visit to Aceredo is definitely like that of any archaeological site, the experience gives significant relics.
While wandering around the ruins and the half-destroyed houses, it is possible to come across the rusty body of an old car.
Elsewhere it was photographed what looks like the frame of a narrow storage room, from which hangs a light bulb still connected to its old cable, hanging from the main structure of a now ghost roof.
One of the most curious findings is undoubtedly a stone fountain that, despite the prolonged immersion, still works. Almost as if to emphasize that water is the main character here, for better or for worse.
Abandoned in what used to be an Aceredo alley, there are some crates of beer, stacked next to each other. In their haste to leave, someone prepared them, but then never returned to pick them up.
# A bit Atlantis, a bit Pompei
Spain’s Little Atlantis has only re-emerged because the dam level is just at 15% of its capacity. What if, when the waters return to their pre-drought levels?
It is easy to guess that Aceredo will be swallowed up by the waters again.
The water will inexorably advance with its force, adapting itself to any obstacle and, perhaps, will finish its work of destroying the Galician village.
The old car will return to rust in the reservoir, the forgotten crates for beer are condemned to remain forever abandoned in the alley of the village.
But will the fountain, the one still working, continue to gush down there?
Continue reading: A SUBMARINE PYRAMID: is it ATLANTIS?
LAURA LIONTI
