Cesar Manso / AFP
This photo taken from the Orellana belvedere shows the site of Las MEDULAS, after a forest fire which ravaged the region on August 11, 2025.
Lights – When the flames ravage natural heritage. The Iberian Peninsula and the Balkan countries are fighting in the heat wave this Monday, August 11 against several fires that have already ravaged part of the Spanish tourist site in Las Médulas, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Castille-et-León region, where Las Médulas is located, former Roman gold mines classified by UNESCO in 1997, recorded thirteen fires in just three days, told the Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones, environment advisor in this region in the northwest of the country, stressing that many of them are intentional.
The fight against the fire that ravages Las Médulas, which has already been four injured, goes “Be very difficult” due to “Bad” weather and wind conditions “Until 40 kilometers per hour” Expected, said Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones at a press conference.
Ash vegetation
“We will not allow the return of” Some 700 people evacuated as long as security in their localities is not guaranteed, he added.
The site therefore houses ancient Roman gold mines of the 1st century which were abandoned two centuries later. Time has surrounded them with greenery and hundred -year -old trees, now in ashes, As you can see on the images taken before and after the fires below.
Cesar Manso / AFP
Las MEDULAS, in the municipality of Carucedo, on September 4, 2024 (left) and the same place photographed on August 11, 2025 (right) after a forest fire ravaged the region.
« What we have seen from the Orellán belvedere in Las Médulas a few months ago and what is left today ”writes an internet user on X (ex-Twitter), sharing old vacation photos. She adds: “It hurts, it hurts a lot.”
“It will take years for (the landscape) to recover”deplored Alfonso Fernández, mayor of Carucedo, a close locality, interviewed by the Cadena ser.
Cesar Manso / AFP
The Las MEDULAS site, after a forest fire that ravaged the region on August 11, 2025.
“Once the fires are still active (…) The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport will carry out a first technical assessment to determine the degree of heritage damage”informed the government of Castille-et-León in a press release.
For its part, neighboring Portugal fights on Monday against three major fires, mainly in the north and the center of the country.
The most worrying fire is in Transcoso, in the center of the country. This fire, active since Saturday, still mobilizes an important device: more than 650 firefighters supported by six airlines. There are six light injuries, including three firefighters, according to an assessment of the civil protection quoted by the agency Lusa, which specifies however that the situation evolves favorably.