Logbook · 14 places

What to see and do in Minas de Riotinto

What to see and do in Minas de Riotinto (Cuenca Minera, Huelva): 14 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 5 Monuments · 1 Nature · 2 Activities · 1 Curiosities · 4 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Minas de Riotinto

Towns near Minas de Riotinto

What to see in Nerva 4 km · 8 places
What to see in El Campillo 4.5 km · 7 places
What to see in Zalamea la Real 5.9 km · 10 places
What to see in Campofrío 8 km · 7 places
What to see in El Madroño 9.2 km · 3 places
What to see in Berrocal 11 km · 5 places
What to see in La Granada de Río-Tinto 12 km · 3 places
What to see in Valverde del Camino 19 km · 8 places

Spain › Andalusia › Huelva › Cuenca Minera › Minas de Riotinto

What to see and do in Minas de Riotinto

Minas de Riotinto
Village
The mining town par excellence of Huelva's Cuenca Minera, with copper and sulphur extraction documented since Tartessian and Roman times and intensified from 1873 by the British Rio Tinto Company Limited; it now lives off industrial tourism and open-pit mining.
Sitio Histórico de la Zona Minera de Riotinto-Nerva
Monument
The mining landscape shared by Minas de Riotinto and Nerva was declared Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), historic site category, in 2005.
Corta Atalaya
Monument
One of the largest open-pit mines in Europe, worked by the Rio Tinto Company Limited until its closure in 1992; a monument on a colossal scale to a century and a half of copper mining.
Barrio de Bellavista
Monument
Residential colony built by the British technicians of the Rio Tinto Company in the late 19th century, with Victorian-style houses, gardens and a social club, an unusual enclave in the hills of Huelva.
Ferrocarril Turístico Minero
Activity
Vintage train ride, with historic steam and diesel locomotives, along part of the route of the old mining railway that linked the mines with the port of Huelva.
Río Tinto, análogo terrestre de Marte
Nature
The reddish waters of the río Tinto, laden with iron and sulphates through the activity of extremophile bacteria, have made its basin a subject of astrobiological study as a terrestrial analogue for Mars.
El Año de los Tiros
Historical milestone
On 4 February 1888 the Civil Guard opened fire on a demonstration of miners and residents protesting in the town square against the pollution from open-air ore-roasting heaps (teleras), causing numerous deaths.
Compra de las minas por la Rio Tinto Company Limited
Historical milestone
In 1873 the Spanish state sold the Riotinto mines to a British consortium that formed the Rio Tinto Company Limited, the seed of today's Rio Tinto mining multinational and the driving force behind the comarca's industrialisation for almost a century.
Museo Minero de Riotinto
Activity
Housed in the former hospital of the mining company, it brings together archaeological pieces from Tartessian and Roman mining alongside British industrial heritage, including a replica of Queen Victoria of England's saloon railway carriage.
Necrópolis romanas de La Dehesa y Huerta de la Cana
Monument
Remains of Roman-era necropolises found in the areas of La Dehesa and Huerta de la Cana, testimony to the intense mining activity and settlement of the area in Antiquity.
Cementerio protestante de Riotinto
Monument
19th-century cemetery built for the British workers and managers of the Rio Tinto Company Limited, with its own Presbyterian chapel in the Bellavista district, reflecting the foreign community that ran the mines.
Reactivación de las minas de Riotinto en 1725
Historical milestone
Mining activity, in decline since Antiquity, resumed after 1725, the year in which Swedish engineer Liebert Wolters Vonsiohielm obtained from the Crown the right to work the deposits for a period of thirty years, laying the foundations of modern mining at Riotinto.
Hundimientos del Filón Sur de 1902 y 1908
Historical milestone
In April 1902 a major ground movement in the Filón Sur caused a section of the historic village of Riotinto to collapse, leading to new housing being built at Alto de la Mesa to rehouse those affected. In January 1908 a further collapse destroyed about two hundred houses and left many more in ruins.
Barrios obreros desaparecidos de Riotinto
Curiosity
Between 1883 and 1888 the Rio Tinto Company Limited built several districts to house the mining population in addition to Bellavista: Alto de la Mesa, La Naya, La Atalaya and Río Tinto-Estación. Most were demolished in the 1970s as open-pit mining advanced.