MEMORY OF A WETLAND THE PAUL OF LAGOS

Transcription

1 MEMORY OF A WETLAND THE PAUL OF LAGOS Filipe Themudo Barata & Teresa Rebelo da Silva 1 THE LANDSCAPE BEFORE THE XV CENTURY DRAINING WORKS Approximately area: 400 ha, to the North of Lagos (Algarve - Portugal), with low levels, flooded regularly by Bensafrim river, whenever it overflowed, and daily by the sea water tides that covered a considerable area of the marsh, specially the most neighbouring sea areas; the landscape taken by the reeds, rushes and toad marshes, which still exists today in the region s onomastics. The avifauna of this wet region was rich, with the life of aquatics birds like the caiman, the spoonbill and the flamingo or nesting species such as the tailorbird and the stilt; in the slopes abounded juniper and sea- weed, also named in the toponomy of the area; in one of the marsh limits, in the place of Portela (today Portelas) there use to be houses of the few inhabitants living in the region, with some agriculture means, in a permanent struggle against the water excess and not far from the important well, located in Bensafrim way; some of the marsh lands were exploited with pasture.

2 2 In general it was an area with a low human activity, of a resilient agriculture where nature was far from being controlled. WORKS DONE IN THE END OF THE XVTH CENTURY The aims of the project were very clear: draining the marsh and built up a water duct to Lagos for supplying. So a great drain, named the Real Drain, was dig from which several other drains or opened complementary ditches would diverge, allowed to transforming this area into agriculture land, excluding some zones of strong salinity quality (taken by rushes and reeds, with lease exploration; an area of salt-works and later, on its margin, rice culture). The landlord leases joint land patches which areas would vary between about 80 m 2 e 2 ha, where farmers produced cereals, vineyards, vegetable gardens and fruits. There was rigorous obligations regarding the preservation of the draining ditches and measures to remove cattle were taken, directing to a more controlled landscaping, probably enclosures. The result have been quite obvious, with new hydraulic potentialities advantages: irrigated land increases with rigorous measures regarding the irrigation water, milling (water-mills near water and coast lines, windmills in more exposed sites). Also there was a growth of path networks, giving access to the new cultivated lands, including some bridge constructions as a result. Finally, even a housing area increase, built in higher land levels that placed the agriculture production in Lagos market. The second kind of work was the water duct for supplying. The construction of an aqueduct in stonework that directed the marsh water to a fountain in Lagos, named O Cano ( The water pipe ) that replaced a very old main water fountain supply.

3 3 The Royal Ditch Since the XV century this is the more important draining structure and also draws the limits that organized landscape. AN ANCIENT WITNESS OF THE WORKS In the beginning of the XVII an author has described the region around Lagos in these terms: there is a place called Paul, because in ancient times was a marshy area that later people was able to dry and cultivate with vineyards, bread lands, kitchen-garden and enclosures with fruit trees. This marsh was placed near by a lagoon, where lived some people in a small village (Henrique Fernandes Sarrão, História do Reino do Algarve, in: Revista de História Económica e Social, 3, 1983, p. 144) In the city [Lagos] there is a water fountain that people called the Water Pipe stone made. It runs by eight pipes till the sea, but there is enough water to wash cloths. All the water comes through a water pipe stone from a water source placed in the marsh. (Idem, Ibidem)

4 4 The Paradise Well This is one of the few wells that still exist in the marshy area. It s difficult to be sure about its chronology, but there is signs of several interventions trough the years. ACTUAL LANDSCAPE AND NEW APPROACHES Centuries were going by, and the importance of the draining works has been lost. The remains of the ancient works and landscape structure is vanishing, due to the well know problems of the European rural areas. Nowadays, in landscape terms, the Paul of Lagos still belongs to the so called wetlands. That s why recently this area has called up the attention of many people interested to preserving it while it remains as a wetland. This perspective is an interesting case where historic heritage is confronted with natural heritage. In fact, naturalists and ecologists are trying to preserve the area as an ecosystem; so that they defend a programme, which lead to the destruction of the historic landscape, now replaced by the former natural structure, where the priority is to transforming the area as a habitat for avifauna and plants. Of course, it means to destroy all the draining works done in the XV century

5 5 Paul of Lagos scheme (Costa, 2003) The aim it s to enhance the structures connected with water draining and supply. The draining system has been organized around 1470, but by the end of XV century most of the work was ready. Salt-pans and rice fields were a major culture during the XVII and XVIII centuries, but traditional agriculture was dominating. As it was a rich area landlords put the system under pressure and were able to get some manors and farms.

6 6 Bensafrim River and S. Peter Manor Beyond the small Bensafrim River, ruins of S. Peter Manor can be seen. After the XV century owners that control the area built up manor like that one. AN ANCIENT BUT FRAGILE SYSTEM The Paul of Lagos works have begun as a private initiative, but Lagos city hall has joined the landlord when water supply problem became a central item. This last work, stone made, only was ended during king Manuel ( ) reign because it has been necessary to built up an aqueduct with 4510 meters long, about 40 centimetres large and 1 meter deep. Through the aqueduct water was lead to Lagos to the fountain called The Water Pipe. What the marsh draining concerns, the water flow technique was supported by the opening of a ditch around the marshy land that should be drained; it was the Royal Ditch. Connected with this one there was others ditches coming from the middles of the fields to drain the exceeding water. The drain of the Royal Ditch itself was drained to the sea or others lower fields

7 7 through new ditches. Although the system was full of channels in the area, there is no notices about works to ensure the ditches walls. Only with time the system has reached the security he knows nowadays; before, they were open ditches, protected with argil. Soon the management of the area became a public priority. First of all, the maintenance of what works concerned was a problem and every owner or tenant should take care of those closest structures, cleaning the ditches. Other kind of worries was to avoid that people could built up houses, including farms, inside the marsh; therefore town authorities try to oblige, in vain most of the time, that new buildings should be constructed in higher places. But it was about irrigation and water supply that rules were quite clear. All fields were divided in a way that they should be in contact with one of the existing many ditches. It means that each tenant could just use the water carried by the closest ditch. In general the system knew a great deal of maintenance problems connected with the difficult balance between technical, economic and social problems in one side and the effectiveness of drying the fields in the other. At the same time, the enlargement of the agricultural works in the area soon has begun to endanger the biological and ecological system and therefore the Paul de Lagos became more fragile.

8 8 Paul de Lagos A general view, where we can see how the several elements of the drain system organize the limits of properties BIBLIOGRAPHY Martins, José António de Jesus (1995) Lagos Medieval, Master Thesis, Porto. Silva, T. R. (2003) O Paul de Lagos nos finais da Idade Média: técnicas de drenagem e irrigação, in: Actas do Congresso de História da Paisagem Medieval, UNL, Lisboa. TO KNOW MORE Durand, A. (2000) Les paysages médiévaux du Languedoc (Xe-XIIe siècles), Toulouse. Furió, A (2001) La domesticación del médio natural. Agricultura, ecologia y economia, in: El medio natural en la España Medieval, Cáceres, pp About the Paul of Lagos area: Costa, Luis (2003) Estudo de caracterização do Paul de Lagos, SPEA, Lagos.