These were the most important lead mines in Catalonia. The museum explains the history of lead mining in the Priorat region through a unique experience which provides visitors with a unique opportunity to observe a lead glance mine 40 metres underground.
The Bellmunt del Priorat Mine Museum, located in the former industrial complex of Mina Eugènia, is a centre for the interpretation of lead mining in the region of Priorat. Since its foundation the Museum has aimed to protect, conserve, and promote the heritage elements relating to mining activity, becoming an efficient tool for local social, economic, and cultural development.
The collection includes extensive material relating to mining activity, and the everyday social life of mining communities. These materials are mostly tools, machinery, plans, photographs and other documents. A part of the Museum collection is on show in the current permanent exhibition.
Bellmunt del Priorat was the centre of a major mining basin which also covered the neighbouring municipalities of Falset and El Molar. There are numerous traces of mining activity in the landscape, such as slagheaps, which are still to be seen in much of the municipality. The most visible remains are from the industrial-scale mining operations from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although there have been varying degrees of mining activity since the Late Bronze Age.
Mina Eugènia is a unique industrial and mining complex, located near the urban nucleus of Bellmunt del Priorat. The origins of the mine date back to 1870 and to the initial work carried out in the original Inocenta mine, which became Mina Eugènia in the 1890s. Until 1920, one of the most prosperous mining periods, the company Minas del Priorato, S.A. built the first mining colonies to provide accommodation for the workers arriving with their families from other mining regions, mostly from Andalusia. Mina Eugènia remained in permanent operation until 1972. It was the most important lead mine of Catalonia, thanks to its efficiency and the high quality of lead produced.
Consult Museum webpage.
