Dolmen de Puig Balaguer
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Quelet · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
What the sources say
Le dolmen de Puig Balaguer est un site archéologique mégalithique qui se situe dans la commune d'Espolla, dans la province de Gérone en Catalogne (Espagne).
Il est inscrit à l'Inventaire du patrimoine architectural de Catalogne.
Article in FrenchRead on Wikipedia3 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
The full article
Dolmen de Puig Balaguer: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Puig BalaguerCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Puig BalaguerCC BY-SA 4.0
The Dolmen de Puig Balaguer is a megalithic archaeological site in the municipality of Espolla, in the province of Gérone in Catalonia, Spain. It stands on the north side of the hill of the same name, at its highest point. It is included in the Inventaire du patrimoine architectural de Catalogne.
The dolmen is built from slate orthostats on very steep ground. It is a tomb intended for restricted use and repeated reuse. Its tumulus is only 8 m in diameter. The trapezoidal funerary chamber measures 1,30 × 11,10 m and is 1,20 m high. The access corridor cannot be seen.
The roof slab, measuring 2,25 × 1,55 m, has collapsed into the chamber, which has folded in on itself. The upper part of the hill also contains, on its south side, a mining gallery about one hundred metres long. The gallery was cut into the rock and left an artificial scree slope in front of its entrance.
The Dolmen de Puig Balaguer forms part of the Espolla dolmens, a group comprising 12 dolmens and 1 menhir, the menhir de Castella (ca). Its dating is given as 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE, based on typological estimate. No legend or other account of the monument’s later history is provided.
No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Dolmen de Puig Balaguer", shown in the original language.
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Puig BalaguerCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Puig BalaguerCC BY-SA 4.0
Dolmen de Puig Balaguer is a dolmen in Espolla, Spain. A typological estimate: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE. Elevation: 330 m. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Dolmen de Puig Balaguer", shown in the original language.
HistoriqueSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Puig BalaguerCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Puig BalaguerCC BY-SA 4.0
Il fait partie des dolmens d'Espolla formant un ensemble de 12 dolmens et 1 menhir (le menhir de Castella (ca)).
Situé sur le versant nord de la colline du même nom, à son point culminant, il convient de noter que cette colline présente également, dans sa partie supérieure, mais sur son versant sud, une galerie minière d'une centaine de mètres creusée dans la roche, qui a laissé un éboulis artificiel devant l'entrée.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Puig BalaguerCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Puig BalaguerCC BY-SA 4.0
Le dolmen est construit en orthostates d'ardoise sur un terrain très escarpé. C'est un tombeau à usage restreint et réutilisable. Son tumulus n 'a que 8 m de diamètre. Sa chambre funéraire trapézoïdale mesure 1,30 × 11,10 m avec une hauteur de 1,20 m. Son couloir d'accès est invisible. La dalle du toit (2,25 × 1,55 m) s'est effondrée sur la chambre, qui est repliée sur elle-même.
How this page was madeSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Puig BalaguerCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Puig BalaguerCC BY-SA 4.0
The summary at the top of this page was written by MiniMax-M3 (2026-11-08) from the cited Wikipedia article “Dolmen de Puig Balaguer”, translated from French. The numbers in it were checked automatically against the source text. The rest of the page is the article itself, the structured records and computed distances.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Dolmens of Andalusia, Extremadura and Galicia
Spain has a great many megalithic tombs, and the Atlas's Spanish dolmens run from Andalusia in the south to Galicia in the north-west. The finest are at Antequera in Andalusia, where the Dolmen of Menga, dated to about 3750 to 3650 BCE, is among the largest ancient megalithic structures in Europe. It is 27.5 metres long, 6 metres wide and 3.5 metres high, built with thirty-two megaliths, the largest weighing about 180 tonnes. After the chamber was finished it was covered with soil and built up into the hill seen today; when it was opened in the nineteenth century archaeologists found the skeletons of several hundred people. The Dolmen of Viera stands 70 metres away, and the tholos of El Romeral lies about 4 kilometres off; the three were inscribed as the Antequera Dolmens Site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in 2016.
In the south-west, the Dolmen de Soto at Trigueros in Huelva province is a Neolithic tomb estimated to date between 3000 and 2500 BCE, one of about 200 Neolithic burial sites in the province. It was found in 1922 when its owner, Armando de Soto Morillas, wanted to build a house; the German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier found eight bodies in a fetal position with artefacts, and its engraved and painted uprights have been studied more recently.
In Galicia and Portugal a dolmen is an anta, and in Catalan-speaking areas dolmens have folk names such as cova (cave), caixa (crate or coffin), taula (table) and arca (chest). These names are tradition: they record what people made of the monuments, not what they were built for.
When visiting Menga, look at the great capstones from inside the corridor, and at the way the mound was built up over the chamber.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Dolmen of Menga, Wikipedia: Dolmen of Viera, Wikipedia: Antequera Dolmens Site, Wikipedia: Dolmen de Soto, Wikipedia: Dolmen · CC BY-SA 4.0
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000–3000 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for dolmens in Spain; this site has not been dated itself. Most dolmens date from the Late Neolithic period (4000-3000 BCE); the Dolmen of Menga in Andalusia dates to about 3750-3650 BCE.Source for this date
Where it stands
Spain
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 42°25′25″ N, 3°00′47″ EFor a GPS or map app: 42.42354, 3.01296
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q17600329wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Lore, kept apart
Legends and claims
These are stories and claims reported by the sources. They are not evidence, and they never stand in for the dating above.
- Tradition
The Dolmen de Puig Balaguer forms part of the Espolla dolmens, a group comprising 12 dolmens and 1 menhir, the menhir de Castella (ca).
The Dolmen de Puig Balaguer forms part of the Espolla dolmens, a group comprising 12 dolmens and 1 menhir, the menhir de Castella (ca). Its dating is given as 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE, based on typological estimate. No legend or other account of the monument’s later history is provided.
Source
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Dolmen de Mas Girarols II0.5 km S
- Dolmen de Mas Girarols I0.6 km S
- Dolmen de les Morelles1.3 km W
- Dolmen del Barranc1.6 km S
- Dolmen d'Arreganyats1.9 km W
- Dolmen del Solar d'en Gibert2.2 km E
- Dolmen dels Cantons2.3 km NW
- Menhir del Castellà3.0 km SW
- Dolmen de la Coma de Felis3.1 km SE
- Dolmen de la Font del Roure3.2 km NW
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Text from the Wikipedia article "Dolmen de Puig Balaguer" (French), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors