Spain
Contenido
España es un país que se industrializó de forma desigual, lo que explica que sean las regiones donde más se asentó la industria las mismas que conservan mayor patrimonio y en las que existe mayor número de asociaciones dedicadas a esta tarea, como ocurre en Andalucía, Asturias, Cataluña, Comunidad Valenciana, y País Vasco. Desde 2001 existe un Plan Nacional de Patrimonio Industrial aunque ya en la Ley de Patrimonio Histórico español de 1985 se reservó un apartado para el patrimonio "científico y técnico".
Andalusia
Andalusian industrialization has until recently been only relatively known. Not even its great founding milestones such as the blast furnaces of Marbella or El Pedroso, the metallurgical plants of Seville, the mining of Linares, Almería or Riotinto, the textile factories of Malaga, the sugar factories of the eastern coast, the oil mills of the Guadalquivir valley, the wineries of Montilla and Marco de Jerez (Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar de Barrameda) or the shipyards of Puerto Real and Cádiz, to name a few examples, have been appropriately valued. Today, the studies of Economic History carried out in different Andalusian universities, teaching at different educational levels, the work of the Pedagogical Cabinets of Fine Arts and the dissemination tasks by city councils and some large companies have contributed to highlighting a heritage reality obscured by the myth of the failure of the Industrial Revolution and the early Andalusian deindustrialization.
The DETEA Foundation") has organized the DETEA Awards[2] for Promotion of Industrial Architecture in Andalusia since 2002. In the Industrial Heritage Category, each year a proposal for the rehabilitation of an Andalusian industrial heritage building is put into competition, among others:
Asturias
Asturias preserves a rich industrial heritage derived from mining, steel and railways, with unique examples in Spain, such as two steel plants still active in Gijón and another in Avilés, owned by the multinational Arcelor. The first maintains the only two blast furnaces in operation in Spain, and the second still maintains its enormous rolling mills and some other facilities. Throughout the Avilés region there are numerous examples of the last wave of industrialization, related to Ensidesa, such as the town of Llaranes.
The largest number of mine towers on the peninsula are concentrated in the Mining Basins "Mining Basins (Asturias)". These castles—both active and abandoned—are mostly made of coal, and almost entirely owned by Hunosa. Many of them entered a regional protection and conservation program in 2007. The oldest were built using the roblonado technique. In the basins was the most important steel center, the La Felguera Factory (Langreo), of nineteenth-century origin and which after its closure in 1984 preserves a good number of buildings both belonging to the factory and indirectly related to it.
Also noteworthy is its intricate narrow gauge railway network, the most complex in Spain and in its day the one with the greatest variety of gauges in Europe, given the different business needs that gave rise to it, which it had with the Langreo Railway, until its absorption by FEVE, the longest active railway in the world. Currently FEVE and RENFE hold ownership of these facilities. Of these, there remain numerous examples of stations and other railway facilities.
In Asturias there are also striking examples of so-called industrial paternalism, with towns currently protected, some even converted into museums. The most prominent example is the town of Bustiello "Bustiello (Mieres)") (Mieres) and, among others, Solvay-Lieres, Arnao in Castrillón or Llaranes in Avilés.
Among other museums of an industrial nature, we can mention the Mining Museum (MUMI) in San Martín del Rey Aurelio, the Steel Museum (MUSI) in La Felguera (Langreo), the Samuño Valley mining and railway Ecomuseum (Langreo), the Gijón Railway Museum or the Ethnographic Museum of Grandas de Salime with pre-industrial facilities.
Industrial heritage is a topic that arouses growing interest in Asturian society, and is frequently reflected in the press. Associations such as INCUNA, recognized publisher of publications and organizer of international meetings on industrial heritage, have emerged around the topic. There is also growing interest expressed by groups of citizens through initiatives such as those represented by the Monsacro collective, the Alfoz de Gauzón Study Center, the Trubia Industrial Historical Heritage Association or the Santa Bárbara Association.
Castile and León
The industrial heritage of the autonomous community of Castilla y León is spread throughout its territory and includes a varied number of industrial facilities.
The facilities that are part of the industrial heritage of the Community are: sawmills, fulling mills, wineries, lime kilns, shearing plants, factories, forges and racks, winepresses, wool washers, windmills, pickers, weavers, optical telegraphs, plasterers, etc. There are numerous cultural centers and museums dedicated to the heritage of the region, such as the Steel and Mining Museum of Castilla y León (Sabero), Aranda de Duero Railway Museum, Energy Museum (Ponferrada), Barruelo Interpretation Center "Mining Interpretation Center (Barruelo de Santullán)"), the Béjar Textile Museum, the MUHACALE (Gordoncillo), the Mina Esperanza Museum (Olmos de Atapuerca), among others.
The Llámpada Association. Industrial Heritage, from Valladolid, is dedicated to the protection, study and dissemination of the industrial heritage of Castilla y León. Edits the magazine Llámpada.
Furthermore, the Association for the Recovery of Industrial Heritage (ARPI) works for the recovery and enhancement of industrial heritage, with important actions in Barruelo de Santullán and the region.
Catalonia
Catalonia has the Museu de la Ciència i de la Técnica de Catalunya located in Terrassa as the most prominent representative in terms of protection and promotion of industrial heritage.
The Catalan industrial heritage is very vast and is receiving special attention, such as the case of the textile industries of the Ter River, with its industrial museum or Can Batlló in Barcelona.
In terms of railway heritage, it has notable examples such as the Montjuich and Tibidabo funiculars in Barcelona, and the Nuria rack railway in Gerona.
In the Valencian Community, numerous elements of industrial heritage are preserved: paper, footwear, food, electricity, metal, textiles and clothing, furniture, toys and ceramics...
The province of Valencia has the Fundació de la Comunitat Valenciana de Patrimoni Industrial i Memòria Obrera de Port de Sagunt,[3].
Also in the province are the Utiel-Requena Wine Museum, the Rice Museum in Valencia, the Paiporta Jewelry Museum, the Manises Ceramics Museum, the González Martí Ceramics Museum, the Alfaro Hofmann Appliances Collection in Godella, the Printing Museum in El Puig, the Municipal Museum of Trenet on the Metropolitan Railway of Valencia, the Clothing Museum in Barón de Bellvert Palace, the Onteniente Textile Museum, the Valencia Silk College, the Garín Silk Museum in Moncada and the Transport Museum in the workshops of the North station in Valencia.
The province of Castellón has the Manolo Safont de Onda Tile Museum "Onda (Castellón)") and the Ceramics Museum "Museo de la Cerámica (Alcora)") of Alcora, erected in 1907.
Located in the province of Alicante are the Elda Footwear Museum, the Ibi Valencian Toy Museum[4] (Payá toy factory), the Monllor Toy Museum in Denia and the Onil Museum (Rico toy factory). The food industry is represented in the Farm-museum dedicated to wine in Jalón, the Clavileño Chocolate and Valor Chocolate museums in Villajoyosa, and the Turrón educational museum in Jijona. The remains of the textile and metallurgical industry can still be found in La Hoya de Alcoy - such as in La Maquinista de Alcoy - and the paper mill in Bañeres. And finally, there are the Agost Pottery Museum and the Railway Museum in Torrellano—a district of Elche—where the first JOB diesel that circulated in Spain is exhibited. Villena has, in addition to some important industrial buildings such as the Electro-harinera (future headquarters of the municipal museum), two industrial districts: La Encina "La Encina (Villena)") (a pure railway town that emerged at the end of the century to house the infrastructure and housing of the workers of this important railway junction) and La Colonia de Santa Eulalia (an old agro-industrial colony pending rehabilitation that housed flour factories, alcohol factories and oil mills). While in Biar there is an old snowfield also pending rehabilitation, as in Alicante happens with the San Blas silos and the old La British Refinery.
The industrial heritage of the province is focused on the banks of rivers, such as the Barchell (dye industries), Molinar (paper and flour mills, built between 1820 and 1840 in Alcoy) or Vinalopó (Bañeres paper factory), with the purpose of taking advantage of the driving force of water. The activities related to orange production stand out in La Ribera and Safor on the banks of the Júcar, Magro and Serpis rivers and close to important sectors such as orange production.
the Basque Country
The Basque Association of Industrial Heritage and Public Works, AVPIOP-IOHLEE, was born in 1984 with the aim of safeguarding and protecting industrial heritage, aware that the historical, artistic and technological values that this heritage contains provide a new dimension for the development of Basque culture itself.[5].
Other regions
The presence of Industrial Heritage in the rest of the Spanish regions is linked to their lower degree of industrialization, although there are numerous relevant examples in Cantabria and Madrid (especially), Galicia (especially the so-called "preindustrial" (with the exception of Ferrol or Vigo) or Aragón.