The Tua Valley : symbolical and technological landscape

• Main Authors: Ellan Fei Spero, Hugo Silveira Pereira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade do Porto 2016-06-01
• Series: CEM: Cultura, Espaço & Memória
• Subjects: Technological Landscape; Symbolical Landscape; Tua Valley; Tua Railway; Foz-Tua Dam
• Online Access: http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/14801.pdf

The Tua Valley, in northern Portugal, is undergoing an intense transformation with the conclusion of the construction of the Foz-Tua dam. As a consequence, part of the valley and part of the centennial Tua railway will be flooded by the dam’s lake. However the complete consequences of this undertaking are yet to be fully known and understood. In this paper we do not aim to judge the decision to build the dam or to close the railway line. Our goal is to display the technological evolution of the Tua Valley and question the interpretation of this region as both symbolic and technological landscape. We wish to contribute to the debate about understanding landscape, and discuss the frontier between technology and landscape, two realities that are often seen as incompatible and disagreeing