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 antiquarian's house
Eastern townships, Quebec (Canada)

The place is surprising. This old rooming house next to an old railway was, in another era, the nerve center of this small village in Eastern Townships. Abandoned for over fifty years according to some, it remained intact and time has slowly...

The abandoned Rochester Subway
Rochester, New York (United States)

In 1918 the Erie Canal was re-routed to by-pass downtown Rochester, and in 1919 the abandoned canal was bought to serve as a grade-separated route for the heavy "inter-urban" streetcars that were seen as obstructing surface street traffic. Tracks...

The old vegetable oil plant
Montréal, Quebec (Canada)

It can not be said that the place is in a good shape. The water infiltrates through every small hole in the roof to the point of offering on this cold winter night a skating rink on each floor. Moreover, the ice must make more than eight...

The pit - Photo: Jarold Dumouchel
Montréal, Quebec (Canada)

Built in 1954, the Dickson incinerator was, at the time, the most modern one in North America. It was built to replace these old incinerators where horses were used for harvesting waste.

In the 1920s, the city of Montreal was struggling...