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Arditurri, Roman Mining Site

Arditurri, Roman Mining Site  Arditurri, Roman Mining Site

At one of the Aiako Harria Natural Park's entrance hall, anchored at the mountains geological conditions, it is located Arditurri Mine Land. It offers a resounding mining landscape which in the surface shows impressive rubble dumpsites, open-cast quarries, oblique drafts and esplanades, mine's entrances, exploitation's old buildings and even a railway that allowed carrying the minerals to Pasaia's Port, nowadays this has been turned into a footpath. In the subsoil the works are more extensive, with tens of kilometres of galleries, divided in a net of different labour and extraction areas.

The mining galleries of Arditurri are one of the few ones which have been worked for 2000 years in a continuous way. At present times, the surroundings of the mining land have been recovered, after more than 20 years of inactivity since the date when the Real Compañía Asturiana de Minas gave up working the wealthy mines of Arditurri in 1984.

 
 

  

 
Location

Arditurri Mine Land. Arditurri bidea, 3. 20180 Oiartzun
Located in the heart of Aiako Harria Natural Park, just at the end of the footpath of Arditurri's green way, the coal mine is accessible by foot as well as by bicycle.

43.286578,-1.815319

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Contact

Errenteria Regional Tourist Office
Madalen kalea, 3
20100 Errenteria
Gipuzkoa

 

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The Interpretation Center-Parketxe:

Located at the building where once the mine's laboratories were situated, the Interpretation Center-Parketxe helps the visitors getting into the history of the Natural Park of Aiako Harria before visiting the mining gallery.

It is made up of two 50m2 floors. On the ground floor we can find the reception area and a serial of informative panels and touch screens where the natural and cultural richness of the Natural Park of Aiako Harria is explained in an enjoyable and didactic way.

The second floor presents information about the Arditurri mines, with modern supports that work with new technologies. Here the visitor will be able to know how the landscape used to be, the mining activities that took place in Arditurri as well as the cultural and social atmospheres of nearby villages in different historic periods.

Guided tours:

Essential Visit

It includes a visit to the Interpretation Centre-Parketxe and to the mining gallery (walk of 180 m)

The visit to the heart of Arditurri's mines is understood as a trip through time in which mind, senses and emotions will participate. The lighting and the sound play a very important role in this visit bacause they make possible creating a magic atmosphere at the gallery, which takes the visitor through different periods in the history of these mines.

Before entering the gallery, the visitor will have a first contact by means of a voice over in which a narrator's voice (which simulates to German engineer Thalacker) makes a review of the mines history.

After the introduction, the guided tour starts at the upper gallery. Along its 180 metres, the visitor will discover the morphology of the tunnel and its big dimensions. In addition, the lights will reveal some of the mine's secrets such as platform to load the material, shafts, mineral seams or an impressive landscape of lakes. The route is carried out through the post Roman time galleries, but at several points of the visit, it is possible to observe the entrances of the Roman galleries which were left into disuse.

New technologies make it possible to recreate sounds and environments lived inside the gallery along its more than 2000 years of exploitation. From the noise of the rocks when coming off, to the clatter of small wagons and the starting of an engine, through the most absolute silence exclusively accompanied by oscillating gleams over the lakes. The visit to the gallery is, without doubt, an unforgettable experience.

The Mine in Depth

It includes a visit to the Interpretation Centre-Parketxe and to the mining gallery (walk of 180 m in first level + 500 m in a lower level).

Opened to the public in the 2º phase of the mining gallery, the visitor will cross 600 meters more of mine in an inferior level. Entering the gallery, we will move away in time.

We will have the opportunity to know the secrets and treasures of Roman times by travelling through underground galleries. The guides will help us traverse the interior of the mines in such a way that each step approaches us to the Roman world. They will aid us in the discovery of the Roman time tracks we will have at sight in this underground landscape.

Following the layout of the delivery trucks used in modern mining, we will make a shutdown in the archaeological zone excavated during the summer of 2008, thus, having the opportunity to uncover secrets which have been kept in silence for centuries.

It is an extraordinary occasion to learn about the evolution of mining in the course of its history.


Timetables

Egutegia ARDITURRI 2024 Fra-ing

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museum

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Top experience in Arditurri

 

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