Page 77 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 12(2) (2024)

the church Sant Martí d’Escalarre (number 14) ed at the bottom of the valley, just a few meters
is on the border of the bell sound propagation from the Noguera Pallaresa River, its central lo-
area. cation in the broad plain between La Guingue-
ta and Esterri d’Àneu offers a commanding view
Results of the Visibility Analysis of the surrounding area. From here, it has direct
Our visibility study comprised three distinct visual connections with three significant parish
procedures: defining the individual viewshed of churches: Sant Andreu de València d’Àneu, Sant
Santa Maria d’Àneu to determine the visible are- Vicenç d’Esterri d’Àneu, and Sant Martí d’Esca-
as from that location; generating the cumulative larre. Additionally, its field of vision extends to-
viewshed of all the parish churches in the Àneu ward the vicinity of Sant Joan de Burgo, which
deanery to assess whether Santa Maria d’Àneu would be visible if the church had a bell tower
was in a notably visible position; and mapping at least 17.42 meters high. Notably, the views-
the intervisibility network among these religious hed of Santa Maria d’Àneu also includes the 77
centers to examine their visual relationships. castle of València d’Àneu, one of the main for-
Starting with the individual viewshed anal- tresses of the Counts of Pallars Sobirà, whose
ysis (fig. 7), we observe that the visible area from historical ties to Santa Maria d’Àneu have been
Santa Maria d’Àneu does not encompass the en- well-established.
tire Àneu valley. Still, it does cover its central and In the cumulative viewshed analysis of the
most fertile parts. Although the church is situat- Àneu deanery (fig. 8), we used a color gradient to Unveiling the Historical Significance of Santa Maria D’àneu

Figure 8: Cumulative Viewshed of the Àneu Deanery