“Tres altares vettones: arquitecura y comprensión del territorio”

Author: Raúl Moro Hidalgo

Publisher: Polytechnic School of Madrid

Photography: William Mulvihill

Architecture begins the moment a decision is made about the site. Choosing a rocky outcrop, orienting it, carving it, positioning oneself in front of the landscape, these are all architectural intentions that define space even before a single wall is raised.

This work focuses on an architecture shaped by minimal interventions, yet which seems to embody profound architectural decisions.

The rock altars of the western Iberian Peninsula, traditionally interpreted through archaeology, are presented here as architectural elements intimately connected to the territory. They are not isolated ritual forms but rather components that organize movement, sightlines, and spatial positions, interpreting the landscape from the stone and toward the horizon.

In these carved architectures, geometry is embedded in the land, orientation becomes a guiding principle, and emptiness is as essential as mass. For those who conceived them, inhabiting the territory was a way of building without constructing, of seeing with precision, and of occupying with intention.

It is through this architectural and territorial lens that we can attempt to understand them today.