65 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, the last dinosaurs left their footprints on the sand of a tropical marsh near the sea. The footprints fossilized, the dinosaurs became extinct and, later, the Pyrenees formed through the crash of tectonic plates, putting the geological layer that contains the footprints in an almost vertical position. At the end of the twentieth century, the site became an open pit mine, and the removal of the coal layer that covered the footprints exposed them again, this time on a monumental wall 500m long and 80m high. This monumental paleontological frieze, with more than 3.500 footprints of Titanosaurs and Dromeosaurs, is the largest dinosaur footprint site in Europe and one of the most important world-wide.
The visitor’s path follows the paths that were put in place during the operation of the mine, which are recycled as a pedestrian routes. Elevated platforms and ramps are put in place where the path is missing, preserving the fragile pioneer meadows that are colonizing the slopes at the edges and bottom of the mine pit.
In addition to its paleontological value, the site contains two alpine wetlands that provide valuable habitats in terms of biodiversity. In some walls of the mine pit there are impressive geological strata series that include coal reefs and that explain, as if it was an open book and the geological layers its pages, the last 65 million years of the Earth’s history. The location, on a mountain pass, also provides exceptional views onto the surrounding landscape. Along the path towards the dinosaur footprints, all these values will be highlighted.
Existing paths are conditioned for pedestrian circulation through an on-site stabilization technique which re-uses the existing platform materials in the making of the new pedestrian trail. In this way, the colour of the trail will blend with that of the environment, as most of the materials used are found in situ. The elevated paths and platforms are made of grey galvanized steel grate, which, once slightly aged, will lose its shine and will establish a chromatic dialogue with the grey palette of the limestone rock wall that contains the dinosaur footprints.
If further excavation would take place, more footprints would be revealed. Therefore, in order to make future prospection possible, all of the construction elements can be removed. The platforms and museographical elements sit on screwed micro-pile foundations, which can be unscrewed and removed without leaving any trace. This foundation technique also guarantees a maximum protection of the pioneer vegetation that now stabilizes the mine pit slopes.
Footprints are only visible through the inner shadows that the sun casts during certain hours of the day. Faced with this subtle heritage, the museography elements strive to disappear in order to give maximum prominence to the heritage footprints. Therefore, the museography, formed by Interpretative Windows, consist of transparent glass panels with vinyls glued onto them which contain the information. Each panel forms an anamorphism, which means that information is visible only from a vantage point. This make is it possible for the visitors to make out the footprints on the rock wall even in cloudy days, when the shadows that make the footprints visible are not present. By looking through the panels, new layers of information are superimposed onto the visitor’s view, as if it were an augmented “physical” reality.
Fumanya Dinosaurs Trail
Fumanya, Berguedà, Catalonia, Spain
Diputació de Barcelona (Barcelona Region Authority), Fígols Municiapality
2019-21
Project
Landscape: interpretation trail through paleontological site.
Site area: 63.000m2
Paths: 1km
Eduard Balcells Architecture+Urbanism+Landscape
Bernuz-Fernández
Factors de Paisatge - Manuel Colominas
Playtime