Minateda Rock Shelters

A 600-figure painted frieze found in 1914, whose superimposed phases let Abbé Breuil sketch the first chronology of Levantine art in 1920.

On a hillside above the Tobarra valley in southeastern Albacete, the Abrigo Grande de Minateda shelters one of the densest painted panels in Iberia — some 600 figures layered over millennia. A local labourer, Juan Jiménez Llamas, spotted them in 1914, and Abbé Henri Breuil's 1920 study of their superimposed phases became the founding chronology for Levantine art. Archers, deer hunts, files of horses, a great bull and a woman leading a child crowd the frieze, with later schematic signs painted over the naturalistic scenes. Part of UNESCO's Mediterranean Basin rock art listing since 1998, the shelter is seen on guided tours from the Tolmo de Minateda archaeological park.