Skip to content

    Case study · Vall de Núria, Catalonia

    ICAC in the Pyrenees — landscape archaeology
    spoken aloud.

    How ICAC and GIAP made the exhibition “Vall de Núria i Coma de Vaca: paisatges culturals mil·lenaris” accessible with NaviLens — in 42 languages, at 2,000 m altitude.

    ICAC touring exhibition “Vall de Núria i Coma de Vaca: paisatges culturals mil·lenaris” set up at the Vall de Núria interpretation centre, with folding panels and visible NaviLens codes

    ICAC · GIAP

    Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology · Landscape Archaeology Group

    Vall de Núria

    Interpretation centre · Vall de Núria station (Queralbs, FFCC)

    FECYT

    ArqueoPirenaia project (FCT-21-17298) · 10 years of research

    8 panels

    First Spanish scientific exhibition with NaviLens

    Client

    Catalan Institute
    of Classical Archaeology

    The ICAC is Catalonia's reference centre for classical archaeology. Its Landscape Archaeology Research Group (GIAP), founded in 2004, studies the cultural landscapes of the Mediterranean arc and, in particular, the high-mountain spaces of the Pyrenees.

    With the support of FECYT, FGC, Vall de Núria, the Ripoll Ethnographic Museum and the councils of Queralbs and Ribes, GIAP produced the touring exhibition “Vall de Núria i Coma de Vaca: paisatges culturals mil·lenaris”. NaviLens turns every panel into accessible content any visitor can hear in their own language.

    The official presentation of the final results of the ArqueoPirenaia transfer project took place in 2023 at Vall de Núria (Queralbs), with the main entities and institutions involved (icac.cat). The rollout complements the accessibility strategy of Turisme FGC / Pirineu365, which integrates NaviLens at its mountain stations as part of the progressive upgrade of facilities (valldenuria.cat/accessibilitat).

    § The challenge

    Bringing landscape science to every visitor.

    1. 01

      A high-mountain scientific exhibition

      “Vall de Núria i Coma de Vaca: paisatges culturals mil·lenaris” covers 5,500 years of human occupation of the Pyrenees. The panels, dense with Catalan scientific text, are hard to follow for visitors with low vision, older audiences or international tourists arriving by rack railway above 2,000 m.

    2. 02

      Touring and unstaffed

      The GIAP-ICAC exhibition travels between the Vall de Núria interpretation centre, the Ripoll Ethnographic Museum and other venues in the Ripollès and Cerdanya. It needed a self-service accessibility system, no guide and no downloads, that visitors could use with their own phone.

    3. 03

      Scientific Catalan, several tourist languages

      The Núria rack railway welcomes visitors from across Europe. GIAP's discourse — landscape archaeology, transhumance, Neolithic, Roman era, cheese huts — also had to be available in Spanish, English, French and 38 more languages.

    Visitor aiming NaviLens GO at the code of the panel “Què és un paisatge cultural?” in the ICAC exhibition at Vall de Núria

    § The solution

    A code on every
    scientific panel.

    Each panel of the GIAP-ICAC exhibition carries a NaviLens code in the header, next to the title. It is detected from several metres, without aiming and also with low vision.

    The visitor hears the panel content — landscape archaeology, first inhabitants, medieval transhumance, archaeo-routes — in their language, with playback controls, no downloads and no on-site guide.

    § Timeline

    From the panel header to the archaeo-routes.

    1. 2010-2023

      10 years of landscape archaeology in the Pyrenees

      GIAP at ICAC, led by Josep Maria Palet, has studied the Núria and Coma de Vaca valleys (Queralbs, Ripollès) since 2010. The research documents over 350 structures — huts, pens, orris, pastoral shelters — and shows that many, once attributed to recent times, are Neolithic in origin.

    2. 24 Sep 2023

      Opening at Vall de Núria station (FFCC)

      Josep Maria Palet (ICAC director), Queralbs mayor Imma Constans and David Codony (Vall de Núria events lead) open the touring exhibition “Les valls de Núria i Coma de Vaca: paisatges culturals mil·lenaris”, with 8 panels equipped with NaviLens codes. According to ICAC itself, this is the first time the technology is used on scientific outreach materials in the Ripollès, in Catalonia and probably across the rest of Spain.

    3. Visit

      NaviLens GO reads the panels aloud

      Visitors point NaviLens GO at the code — detected from several metres, without aiming — and hear the panel content in their language, with play, pause and forward controls, with no need to download extra content or request an audio guide.

    4. Tour

      Same accessible layer at every venue

      The exhibition travels across the territory (Vall de Núria, Ripoll Ethnographic Museum, Ripollès and Cerdanya facilities) in partnership with the Capçaleres del Ter i del Freser Natural Park and the councils of Queralbs and Ripoll. As the panels are the same at every stop, the NaviLens layer travels with the show with nothing to reinstall.

    5. Archaeo-routes

      From panel to territory

      The panels invite visitors to walk the project's ARQUEORUTES — herding paths, sites of Coma de Gombrèn and Coma del Clot-Fontnegra — and the NaviLens codes prepare visitors with the key information before they set out into the high mountains.

    6. Funding

      FECYT · Ministry of Science and Innovation

      The ArqueoPirenaia project has been supported by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT-FCT-21-17298) of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, alongside local institutions.

    § Fieldwork

    Panels, codes and visitors at Vall de Núria.

    General view of the ICAC “Vall de Núria i Coma de Vaca” exhibition at the Vall de Núria interpretation centre, with folding panels and NaviLens codes in every header
    GIAP-ICAC panel “Què és l'arqueologia del paisatge?” with NaviLens code in the upper-right corner next to the title
    Two visitors at the Vall de Núria interpretation centre exploring the GIAP-ICAC panels
    Visitor aiming the phone with NaviLens GO at the code on the panel “Què és un paisatge cultural?”
    NaviLens GO screen showing the Spanish voice reading of the panel “What is a cultural landscape?”
    Three visitors reading the final panel inviting them to the archaeo-routes, with NaviLens code

    § What they said

    • “Pensábamos que muchas de estas estructuras vinculadas a la actividad ganadera —corrales, cabañas, abrigos y orris— eran de períodos muy contemporáneos, pero hemos visto que algunas tienen miles de años y se conservan muy bien porque han sido reutilizadas a lo largo del tiempo.”
    • “No se trata sólo de poner un panel en la montaña, sino de un conjunto de acciones con el objetivo de ofrecer un enriquecimiento en el tiempo libre a quien quizás vendría sólo a hacer una excursión muy clásica.”

    § Results

    A scientific exhibition anyone can read.

    100%

    Of scientific panels available by voice

    42

    Languages — including Catalan, Spanish, English and French

    0

    Visual or language barriers to follow the exhibition

    “Knowledge of cultural landscapes only enriches our diversity if it reaches everyone — in any language and without barriers.”

    GIAP · Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology

    § And your destination?

    Your destination can also guide in 42 languages.

    Tell us about your routes, offices, monuments or galleries. We’ll show you how NaviLens would make your offer accessible —with comparable cases.

    Request demoView Tourism & Culture sector

    Other cases· Tourism & Culture

    View all on the map →