The old Minas de Riotinto locomotives
The old Minas de Riotinto locomotives

The old Minas de Riotinto locomotives

The old Minas de Riotinto locomotives

Martian landscape in the heart of Spain

Minas de Riotinto, Spain

We are talking about over 5000 years of mining history in this area. The landscape has been changed forever, and it looks at some places like a alien planet where red, yellow, purple mingle with green, gray and ocher.

The ten abandoned trains account that the site today are only a small part of this industrial landscape that has been suddenly stopped in 1974. At its peak, there was more than 150 trains who were traversing the long and winding road which stretched over 84 km. Each train had between 20 and 50 cars full of pyrite.

The mine located in the town of Minas de Riotinto, as we know it today, began operating in 1875 and stopped almost 100 years later. Today, if the plant is closed, a museum exists on the site.

Related content

The abandoned boys institute
Cecil County, Maryland (United States)

Located at the north of Baltimore, this Beaux-Arts influenced Gregorian Revival style by N.Y. architects Boring and Tilton buildings was one of the oldest school of Maryland before its closure in the 90s. The 330 acre campus is constituted of...

The neurons poet's abandoned plant
Montréal, Quebec (Canada)

The plant itself is definitively not as great at we saw in other places. Located in the heart of Pointe-Saint-Charles neighborhood of Montreal, this two storey building has no longer the cachet of its heyday. While neighboring buildings are...

The old abandoned sawmill

The advantage of a 4 hours ride to visit an abandoned sawmill is that we increase our chances of finding an intact place without the slightest trace of vandalism. Or at least, very little.

All along the road, the fear of finding a...

The abandoned Hipster hotel
Montréal, Quebec (Canada)

Built in 1976, not much remains of this former 148 rooms hotel. In fact, apart from a concrete structure and graffitis, there is only industrial waste. The building has 18 floors and looks like an old white elephant amidst a changing neighborhood...