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 Ogilvie widow's abandoned mansion
Laurentides, Quebec (Canada)

Built in 1923 by Helen Johnston, widow of William Watson Ogilvie, the mansion incorporates all the components required by the old bourgeoisie. It must be said that her husband William W. Ogilvie had made a fortune in the grain trade, and when he...

Fort Rodney
Pigeon Island, Gros-Islet (Saint Lucia)

Okay, Fort Rodney is more a tourist place than abandoned, conducive to exploration. Besides, I wasn't sure about these photos on this website. Well, they are published, but I'm still not convinced to keep them all on Urbex Playground.

Not...

Belchite, a remnant of the Spanish Civil War
Belchite, (Spain)

We are in September 1937 in the small village of Belchite located about 50 kilometers from Zaragoza. The Spanish Civil War has been raging for a year already and thousands of Spaniards died. By the end of the conflict in April 1939, they will be...

The former Grands Moulins de Paris company
Marquette-Lez-Lille, (France)

Built in 1921 on the left bank of the Deule in Marquette-Lez-Lille (north of the France), the majestic Grands Moulins de Paris's mill is a huge structure adrift waiting for a renaissance that is pending since few decades.

The history of...