The Portomarín Virtual project is a digital heritage initiative dedicated to recovering the memory of the historic village of Portomarín, Spain. Once a strategic landmark along the medieval Camino de Santiago, the original village was submerged beneath a dam in 1963. Through an interdisciplinary collaboration between art historians at the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela and graphic designers at the Centro Infográfico Avanzado de Galicia, the project reconstructs the lost built environment (including 344 buildings) using archival photographs, 2D plans, and oral testimonies. More than a technical reconstruction, the project aims to safeguard the village’s memory, heal community trauma, and provide pilgrims and tourists with a deeper understanding of the site’s heritage and history before it was lost.

Main results

The main impact of the project is providing a new historical and scientific document to safeguard the village's memory, offering rigorous information for pilgrims and tourists on the Camino de Santiago, and ensuring the data is discoverable and reusable across the European Data Space for Cultural Heritage.

Discover more about the project here.