Cogotas Fort Observatory. Memory
The Cogotas Iron-Age site lies at the southern edge of the North High Plateau, in the centre of the province of Avila. Located next to the river Adaja, about six miles southwest of Cardeñosa, within which municipality it falls, on the road from Avila to Arévalo. It sits on a natural rise in the land, on granite rock, at 1,156 metres above sea level, with two striking rocky outcrops, the “little one” and the “big one”, to which it owes its name. It´s a strategic spot: the water supply is plentiful, fine land for raising livestock, pigs, cattle, sheep and horses, which can graze easily in the fields and woods; this livestock is the basic source of prosperity for the peoples of the area. In addition there is an abundance of game. And fish to be caught in the nearby river, which has now been converted into an enormous reservoir.
There is no doubt that this is the most significant site in the province of Avila: for years it alone has stood as the definition of the Iron Age at the height of its splendour in these lands. More recently, the excavations at Chamartín de la Sierra and at el Raso would bring some changes in finer detail, but, in essence, Las Cogotas will continue to be identified with the middle of the Iron Age, or Iron Age II, of this High Plateau.
The many features of its acropolis, the different gates, the varying thicknesses of its entrances: all of these can be appreciated from a quiet look-out point, which condenses in the distance the rich temporal intensities lived through in the Vetton fortified settlement of the Cogotas.