They paint a large flag of Spain on cave art of more than 6,000 years in Ciudad Real

Outrage in Solana del Pino, Ciudad Real, after some cave paintings over 6,000 years old have been vandalized. The Nature Protection Service (Seprona) of the Civil Guard has opened an investigation to try to find the author or authors who last weekend painted a Spanish flag on the cave art.

The events have occurred on the shelter of the Dead Man’s Rockin Solana del Pinoa small municipality of 300 inhabitants located in the Sierra Madrona, on the border between the provinces of Ciudad Real and Jaén.

This has been explained by the mayor of the municipality, Josefa Poyatos, who has commented that this weekend several people were with the destruction caused on such an important historical heritage as is the cave art, when they were driving along the road that goes from Solana del Pino to Andújar (Jaén).

There they found a drawing of a “great flag of Spain made on some cave paintings that are dated between 6,000 and 7,000 years ago”.

Poyatos has reported that it is not the first time that these paintings have suffered act of vandalismand he recalled that 15 years ago, “some interested party already took a piece of stone with some very unique paintings”.

The mayor of Solana del Pino has indicated that she hopes that the investigation can find the author or authors of this “unfortunate cultural attack” which has been carried out with “premeditation and cruelty”.

In fact, he pointed out that, in order to make the paintings, the authors had to use a ladder, since the height of the shelter where the cave paintings are found is 8 meters high, and “the flag has been drawn halfway“.

The mayor, of the PSOE, has said that it is a “miserable act, regardless of whether the drawing is the flag of Spain or it had been another.” “People in Solana del Pino are outragedas we are in the City Council, where for many years we have been betting on tourism linked to cultural heritage that we now see destroyed by some brainless “, he added.

Poyatos has explained that since the facts became known, he has been in permanent contact with the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, Ana Vanesa Muñozto try to solve these damages.

The intention of both the Board and the Ciudad Real Provincial Council is to be able to erase the drawing of the flag of Spainwithout damaging the original paintings.

In addition, they have commented that they are talking about the possibility of protect this type of paintingsalthough, he has recognized that it is difficult.

It so happens that, at the beginning of January, also in the province of Ciudad Real, in the shelter known as ‘The Crack’, in the municipality of Herencia, some graffiti also appeared vandalizing the cave paintings in this place. Graffiti appeared there that read “Aki estubo Josué”, “David”, “Jesús” and “MMXXI”, which the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha described as an “attack” on cultural heritage, which also was brought to the attention of the Civil Guard.