To go
deep inside the "Sierra Minera" (the mining mountain
range) it's a experience that will not disappoint the visitor: it is
indeed a uniquely beautiful territory full of places where the mining activity
has left an evident trace.
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1. The mines of the Beal, "Las Matildes" and "Mina Blanca" mines
“Las Matildes” mine has been converted into the "Centro
de Interpretación de la mirería y el medio ambiente" from "Sierra
Minera de Cartagena- La Unión "
by the members of "Fundación Sierra Minera". This old mining installation has a
massive heritage value and its origin dates back to the 19th century. It is
located in the "Paraje de la Mina Blanca ", (an area within the White
Mine) and belongs to the delegation of the "Beal". "Matildes"
has been turned into an open interpretative space where you'd be able to
explore the different roles of mining and its traces on the landscape in a very
didactic and pleasant way. San Quintín and the White Mine were both devoted
to the water extraction for the water-drainage of the mining river basin from
the beginning of the 20th century. Although, they were created for the
extraction of lead between 1864 and 1871, within the context of the mining boom
that was crucial for the history of Sierra of Cartagena-La
Union. The Mine of "Las Matildes" keeps among other
attractiveness (such as a 225
meter deep well and a small underground service
gallery), the rest of the extraction machinery that made the mining cages work
(elevators) that were hanging of their impressive metallic tower, which is
perhaps most beautiful, elegant and streamlined tower of all the mining region
and whose constructive system and its general appearance resemble much a small
scale of the Eiffel tower. The Matildes mine is an excellent starting point to
come near the great deal that the Mining Mountain range offers the
visitor. This center has a service called "ecotourism" and
cultural tourism, with a wide range of itineraries and guided tours either by
car, which will allow the visitor to discover surprising places, or by foot
which will take you through a lansdcape of impossible colors, massive hack
mines, and manifold elements of industrial archaeology (towers, chimneys,
furnaces, laundries…) along with areas of great environmental interest and a great
variety of flora and fauna.
The
visit to the Matildes can be taken in a route departing form the "Paraje
del Descargador" (an area named "the unloader"), where the
remainings of the mining tower made of stone and brick can be found, along
with old miner's houses digged in caves and ruins of laundries on a landscape
surrounded by marshlands. At the "Descargador" there is train stop
from the F.E.V.E railway (the slow speed rail) whose layout corresponds
with the old mining train that carried the minerals from the
mining mountain range till Cartagena's port. From here the route continues
towards the area of the “Matildes” and goes through "Rambla del
Picharro" (a nearby promenade) whose landscape looks like one of the most
accused miner stamps due to the presence of a great number of well mouths,
marshes, damps and also laundry remains and smeltings in the area. Finally we
will get to the interpreting centre of the “Matildes” mine and the
mining area of the Beal, where the presence of the complex of Mina Blanca is
also worth highlighting. This is the only mine that belongs to “Cornish”
architecture, origined in England, within the whole mining region.
2. The Mining Park
of "La Unión " and the
33 highway
With a
total of 50,000
square meters , the mining park in "La Unión " it is a
very important gesture representing the reinstallment of the mining historical
heritage, to be greatly valued as both cultural and touristic attraction.
Therefore, it implies the recovery of a wide complex of mining installments in the
Unión area of the 19th and 20th centuries which allow us to look at the
complete process of the old underground mining industry, from the
extraction of the mineral, to its washing and concentration, and the later
metal providing from the smeltings. It allows us to see how the old miners
lived and worked in "Sierra de La Unión ".
Among
the recovered elements of industrial archaeology some of the ones standing out
are a whole series of mining facilities that include old tin vein of the
"Mina Remunerada" mineral laundries, sterile marshes, old smelting
remainings, dumps, calcination furnaces and old mines of underground works such
as "Pablo and Virginia". Besides the spectacular "Mina
Agrupa Vicenta" (one of the old mines) that was devoted to pyrite
extraction from 1869 to the second half of the 20th century and in which 3000 square meters
of galleries and storage chambers (some of them over 80 meters deep) have been
opened to the public. The operaional method of this underground mine was the
one of cameras and pillars, very representative of the mountain range.
The mineral was distributed and looked for in mantle shape: the mineral
layer was leaning, and because of that the mine, in which that leaning was
followed to obtain the mineral can also be found in several operating levels
(the fifth level is flooded). That same
water that has been filtered and stored in the bottom level has somehow formed
a beautifully curious lake of a reddish color. It is important to
highlight that the whole of the mine has been tuned into a museum-like space,
equipped by audio-visual items, special effects and dramatization, which all
together will take the visitor to the years of mining operation, making him/her
live the real experience of how it was to work so hard under the ground.
The Highway of 33, the place where the
mining park
of La-Unión
3. Other routes through the mining
mountain range
The
mining mountain range offers numerous possibilities to do hiking routes where
all these remarkable places can be included. To be able to go through the different routes
along the mining region it is important to say that in some areas there are
certain risks such as well mouths and caverns, which
are very close to some of these mining elements of interest, so caution is
to be taken into account. Whenever it's possible, it is best to do the routes
with a guide. Among the main itineraries
we have:
Route La Unión - Portmán
One of
the most interesting itineraries as far as the heritage and the landscape are
concerned is the route towards the old bay of Portmán, where the
mountain range joins the sea. It is recommended to do it by car or
motorcycle,so you would be able to stop whenever you like: an open cast quarry
"Corta Brunita" with a surprising lake painted in reddish colors, the
channel of the old promenade "Rambla del Avenque" in which one can
find mining reminings such wells, towers, chimneys, furnaces, etc. You can
visit the ruins of the house of machines and the metallic tower
of "Mina Permuta" where the access goes through a colorful
tunnel and a footpath that hangs on top of cliffs to finally arrive to “Portus
Magnus” named (Portmán) by the Romans. You could get to know the old port with
no water and flooded instead by sterile from the "Lavadero Roberto",
where the differential flotation technique for mineral washing was used.
Within
the architectonic heritage of Portmán many things are remarkable: the
"Casa del Tío Lobo" (uncle's Lobo house), a mansion which
belonged to one of the most famous mining industralists of the area (Miguel
Zapata), and the old "Hospital de Caridad" (charity hospital) that
holds the Archaeological Museum. This museum has pieces have been digged out
from several archaeological deposits within the area, such as the standing out
multicolor mosaics of "Villa romana de Paturro" (a well known
Roman Village).
Route "El Llano-El Lirio"
Starting off from the mining town of
"El Llano" we can do a route that takes us from moon lunar like lands
that are tremendously transformed by "Cortas Mineras". Then, we can
look at the different mining-industrial facilities and continue to the forest
area of "Cabezo de Ponce" where the "Lavadero de El Lirio"
(one of the mineral laundries) is located. It keeps the remaining of an old
mineral way of transport with a stone frame that forms arcs that resemble the
structure of an old aqueduct.
Visits to the city center of "La Unión " and
"Cartagena"
In the
city centre of the main towns in the "Sierra Minera" a
great architectural legacy can also be found, coming from the old mining ages
of wealth. Thus, some of the main ones are in "La Unión " the Old
Public Market, a cultural flag of the city and one of the modernist jewels of
the region which is also the place where the "Cante de las
Minas" festival takes place: the "Casa del Piñón" (pinenut
house) , being one of the best examples of eclectic architecture from
Murcia or the "Rosario" church with a cathedral-like touch.
We have to also highlight the building of the old "Liceo de Obreros"
(working men grammar school) where the interesting Mining Museum of the
city is settled nowadays.
The
city of Cartagena hostes a wide variety of buildings related to the
thriving mining activity of this region from the mid 19th century and the
beginning of the 20th century. The main
streets in the old town of the harbor city have mansions and palaces of rich miners
like the Cervantes House, Dorda House, Maester House, Zapata House or the
palace of Aguirre, all of them built in the prevailing architectonic styles
that happened in that area in the mining boom: eclectic and modernist. Many of
the door-knockers and callers of these houses were made by the
"Compañía Metalúrgica de San Juan de Alcaraz" (Metallurgical
Company of San Juan of Alcaraz).
