Art & Culture
Cultural Heritage
The wealth of the mining reserves of the Bidasoa was know from the Roman epoch. Its development continued during the Middle Age and came until the XXth century and in other times, not so distant some, supposed an important source of resources that left its stamp in the life of Irun and its population.
The current scenery of the skirts of Aiako Harria, it is a reflez of this intense extractor activity. There can still be seen quarries, dumps, systems of transport, sloping plans ot the ruins of a mining town. The most accesible and emblematic area, which was a testimony of the processes of preparation and mineral calcination, is located in Irugurutzeta. A system was allowinf to make use to the máximum of the area.
The most emphasized from the set is the battery of stoves, considered by the experts like one of the best simples of industrial archaelogy of our territory. Th estoves have staples ofi ron and air vents and, although al lof them have lost the iron cone, they preserve the internal base. During the works developed in the recovery of this patrimony there was discovered the system of induced shot of two of the stoves, installed to improve its production.
For more than 20 years the Irugurutzeta Mining Reserve is immersed in a process of recovery and putting in value of the territory being in the year 2000 included in the National Plan of Industrial Heritage prepared by Ministry of Culture.
After several campaigns of consolidation and cleanliness either account with a “Space of Interpretation of the Mining Environment of Irugurutzeta” located in the current warehouse building. From this space they will give beginning the visits guided to obtain a finished comprehension of the industrial process that developed in this environment.
