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 Fonte da Pipa palace
Loulé, (Portugal)

Known for its carnival and market of great beauty, Loulé is a city of 70,000 inhabitants located in the south of Portugal, in the Algarve region.

It is built between 1878 and 1897 the small castle of Pipa palace which will never be...

Façade under a grey sky
Montréal, Quebec (Canada)

Hochelaga-Maisonneuve has been deeply marked by the train, in its development. Even today, it is surrounded by three tracks : the Canadian Pacific to the west, the now abandoned Canadian National to the east and the one of the port of Montreal to...

Northern View
Montréal, Quebec (Canada)

Used as a snow dump, the site of the former Francon quarry (now known as the Saint-Michel quarry) looks like a huge crater of greenery in the heart of Montreal. This area covers approximately 20% (17% to be exact) of the district of Saint-Michel...

The abandoned chemical plant
Eastern Townships, Quebec (Canada)

For several times I passed by this little factory located in an old industrial area in the Eastern Townships, but I never been inside. Each time, I wondered if it was still active or abandoned. I must say that several tiles were broken, but I was...