Las Médulas is a historic Roman gold mine in Castile and Leon.
background
The landscape in the west of the province of León is fascinating. The Medilianum ridge with its red, partly pointed elevations and wooded valleys looks fantastic. The Las Médulas gold mines have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997; one might believe a natural phenomenon, but the phenomenon was created by human hands 2,000 years ago. It was not erosion but miners and flowing water that shaped the landscape. Asturian workers dug shafts and tunnels into which water was channeled. The mountains of the Terraconensis province were drained and freed from gold using water power. The gold went on a 900 km journey south on the Via de la Plata (Silver Road).
history
The Romans changed the face of the landscape at Las Médulas through mining in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Pliny the Elder was a mine manager in his youth, and he reported that the mines in the Medilianum were pounding around 20,000 pounds of gold annually. 60,000 Asturian workers delivered 1,635,000 kg of gold in 250 years. To do this, they ransacked 200 million cubic meters of rock and earth. 122,000 m³ yielded 1 kg of gold. Pliny suspected that "it should be less arduous to look for pearls and purple on the bottom of the seas than to get the gold out of this earth". The Medilianum is alluvial land. The Asturians had already panned gold from the sand of the rivers of their homeland. The Romans learned from them, but washing the river sand was too difficult for them. The Roman engineers developed a new technique they called “ruina montium” and the hills were washed out. The meltwater of the snow flows from the northeast slope of the 2,000 m high Teleno Mountain into the Rio Cabo, a tributary of the Rio Carera. The waters of the Rio Cabo were channeled into seven channels that led to ponds around the mountain. Different sources assume 100-300 km of sewer systems. The water flowed down the mountain with a gradient of 0.6 to 1%. The canals were exactly 1.28 m wide and only wider in the curves. They were three feet deep. Sometimes they were led through tunnels. The canal construction was the most difficult and expensive part of the mining project. Tunnels, canals and depots can still be visited today. In the mine area, the strong flowing water generated a hydraulic force that carried away the loose rock. The water is disposed of via the slopes down to the Sil river. It is said that Lake Carucedo was created in the immediate vicinity of Las Médulas as a result of the mining activity.
The gold was filtered out of the water enriched with the red sediments as follows: The channels were lined with boards. Branches were placed in them, creating small eddies, and in them the heavier gold sank to the bottom while the rest of the sediment was washed away by the current. The red sediments were piled into towers all around. Over 1000 hectares of the landscape were exploited by the Romans and gave the area a new face.
At the end of the 2nd century the mines stopped because of exhaustion and the original vegetation expanded again. The Roman coin system depended on gold. Most of the gold from Las Médulas was used for minting coins. The monetary crisis in the 3rd century was probably related to the cessation of gold production in the Las Médulas mines.
climate
getting there
From Ponferrada you drive southwest on the N-536 via Villalibre de la Jurisdiccion to Carucedo and turn off there to Las Médulas (signs). From Ponferrada it is about 20 km. There is an information board at the exit of Carucedo in the direction of Las Médulas. From there you can continue to Orellan to the viewing platform or to Las Médulas. If you want to get an overview of the historic gold mine area Las Médulas, it is advisable to turn off to Orellan and through the village to a car park. The last 600 m you go uphill to a platform. From there you get a good overview of the mine area with the eroded red rock peaks. The deeper parts of the terrain have long been overgrown with green. Explanations are given in Spanish on blackboards. There are hiking trails that lead directly into the site.
If you continue to Las Médulas you will get information there using maps, models and drawings. In addition, equipment and its use are shown. A video explains history and geology. On a tour of the gold mines you can visit two pre-Romanesque castros (residential complexes for several families) and a Roman settlement. The Las Médulas Foundation has an attractive website: Las Médulas Foundation
Fees / permits
no
activities
Hikes on marked trails.
kitchen
- Restaurant in the Hotel Medulio, in Carucedo. Tel.: 34 987 422 833. There is room for 350 guests. Weddings or communions are celebrated here. The menu features typical tortilla, paprika sausage and botillo from El Bierzo and wines from Bierzo, Rioja and Ribera de Duero.
accommodation
Hotels and hostels
- Hotel Medulio, in Carucedo. Tel.: 34 987 422 833. The hotel has 25 rooms for 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 people. All have large bathrooms with bathtubs, terraces, TVs and cordless telephones. There is parking for cars and coaches.Price: The double room costs 56 € (as of 2008).
camping
security
trips
literature
- Rise and Fall of the Roman World: History and Culture of Rome as Reflected in Recent Research by Hildegard Temporini, Wolfgang Haase, published by Walter de Gruyter, 1975, ISBN 3110058383 , 9783110058383, 1060 pages
- Las viviendas de los mineros en las minas de oro de las Médulas (León), Atlantis 16, 471-474
- Historia económica de la Hispania Romana, by José María Blázquez, published by Ediciones Cristiandad, 1978, ISBN 8470572431 , 9788470572432, 524 pages
- Geotectonic research, edited by Hans Stille, Franz Lotze, published by Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung (E. Nägele), 1967, notes: no.26-35 1967-1970, original by University of Michigan
- Les Mines Antiques, by Claude Domergue, published by Picard, 2008.ISBN 9782708408005 , 240 pages.
