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Sant Corneli Colony

Cercs, Berguedà, Barcelona

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Curiosities · 2 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

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Sant Corneli Colony

Curiosity · Cercs, Berguedà, Barcelona

The Colònia de Sant Corneli is a former mining settlement in the municipality of Cercs, in the Berguedà, with 98 inhabitants in 2016 and included in the Inventory of Architectural Heritage of Catalonia. It was built in the early 20th century, when the engineer José Enrique de Olano y Loizaga, who had acquired the operation of the Fígols mining basin in 1895, founded the company Carbones de Berga SA and built, together with the neighbouring colonies of Sant Josep and la Consolació, housing and basic services -a bakery, a canteen, a school and a church- to settle the miners and their families. Together with Sant Josep and la Consolació it formed the main mining settlement of Catalonia, with the mines worked by Carbones de Berga SA until their closure in 1991. The original settlement, at 960 metres altitude, included a church of Romanesque origin dedicated to Sant Corneli. Since 1999 it has housed the Museu de les Mines de Cercs, part of the MNACTEC.

Photo: Xavigivax (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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