Fraga da Pena (Fornos de Algodres) walled enclosure.
In an Anthropological perspective there is no
undifferentiated space in human dwelling. Space is always categorized,
classified, and only the ways of doing so are contingent.
Before interfere through construction, man architects
the space using its elements, the experiences and perceptions that they provide
and the associated meanings.
Frequently, Architecture is a simple recognition and
categorization of previous natural forms that are connected to stories, myths,
and transformed in active storage of memories and experiences.
In this context, the tors volume and shape might be
associated to sculptures or architectures of ancient times, mythic times,
ancestral or divine. We can hardly assume that, in Prehistory, these elements
were taken as “natural elements”, explained by tectonic and differential
erosion.
On the contrary. They probably had associated legends
that contributed to the entity of the place, making it a meaningful mark in the
landscape, through which space was organized and experienced.
The building of this kind of enclosures is not just a
matter of building walls using a favorable previous situation. Walls and tor
are integrated in a building where the previous meaning of the natural feature,
not conceived as so, certainly had a main symbolic role. The choosing of the
place and the decision of building an enclosure there hardly can be understood
if we do not consider the meaning and symbolic power of these (for us) natural
formations. Even if we cannot precise the specificities of that meaning and
power, not consider them will result in a poor interpretation and explanation,
that will reflect us more than them.
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