Logbook · 10 places

Mines of San Quintín

Cabezarados, Valle de Alcudia, Ciudad Real

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 2 Nature · 3 Activities · 1 Curiosities

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Mines of San Quintín

Monument · Cabezarados, Valle de Alcudia, Ciudad Real

The Minas de San Quintín (San Quintín Mines) are a mining site in Cabezarados and Villamayor de Calatrava, in the Valle de Alcudia (Ciudad Real), devoted to the extraction of lead and zinc through three mines: San Froilán, Don Raimundo and San Matías. Already worked before the Roman conquest, it was reactivated from the mid-16th century and passed at the start of the 17th century to the Fúcar (Fugger) family. Its peak came between 1884 and 1934 with the Sociedad Minera y Metalúrgica de Peñarroya, a French company that introduced pneumatic drilling — in 1911 more than 30,000 tonnes of galena were extracted — and built a settlement in Cabezarados of up to 1,406 inhabitants, with schools, health care and a pharmacy. It still holds decantation ponds that form greyish dunes, put back into use in 1973 to wash ore from the spoil heaps.

Photo: LBM1948 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

What to see and do in Cabezarados