The Story of Portomarín

[Bert45]

I was sent this link by Galicia Máxica about the building of the dam that created the Belesar Reservoir.

.The video (in black and white) lasts only just over 5 minutes. Unfortunately, for me at least, the commentary is in Spanish, but you can get the gist of it. Seeing the old village half-submerged with the villagers looking on is very sad. You can see them erecting the church of San Nicolás with the numbered blocks.

 

[Anniesantiago]

You can see lots of photos and hear the story in person at Albergue Ultreia in Portomarin, and probably from any other person of a certain age there. I think it was very sad for them.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Thank you Bert.

A tip on translation of the narration: on the forum's embedded YouTube videos if you click the central arrow the video will play embedded on the current tab but if you click on the video's title instead you end up starting YouTube in its own tab and you have more options on how to watch the video. One of these is the closed captioning (CC) option. For your video you can get CC in Spanish, which may help a little, but sometimes you get get an English translation.

Now, here's a warning. Shortly after viewing your video I used Roku to watch YouTube and YouTube gave me a large number of videos in Spanish to pick from in the category "Ancient" History.

 

[wayfarer]

It is always sad to see a community displaced like this, the same thing happened in Wicklow when the village of Ballinahown was submerged in Blessington lake in the 1930's

Lost village emerges from lake as water levels plummet at Wicklow reservoir

Pictures revealing part of a community which was flooded to create a reservoir have been captured from the air.

m.independent.ie