Geosite · Setiles
Setiles iron mines: the other side of Sierra Menera
The Setiles iron mines form part of the vast Sierra Menera ore field, on the border between Guadalajara and Teruel. From the early 20th century, the Compañía Minera de Sierra Menera worked over 1,400 hectares between Ojos Negros and Setiles, carrying ore by train to Sagunto. Closed in 1987, leaving open pits, colourful lakes, and migration memories.
This place across time
Which eras you can read here
A single place can preserve traces from different eras. These layers connect what you see with the stories in the atlas.
- Municipality
- Setiles
- Province
- Guadalajara
- Altitude
- 1,329 m
- Sierra Menera
- Iron ore
- Railway to Sagunto
- Closed in 1987
A mountain of iron
Between Setiles and Ojos Negros, across the border in Teruel, rises Sierra Menera, one of the richest iron deposits on the Iberian Peninsula. It was mined traditionally since ancient times, but large-scale industrial extraction took off in the early 20th century when Basque industrialists Ramón de la Sota and Eduardo Aznar founded the Compañía Minera de Sierra Menera (1900 in company history, 1903 in other sources) to work a concession of over 1,400 hectares spanning both towns.
The railway to Sagunto
The company built a narrow-gauge railway from the mines down to the port of Sagunto, where blast furnaces were later erected. People travelled alongside the ore: families from Setiles, Alustante, Checa, and other towns of the Señorío emigrated to Sagunto to work in the mines, port, or steelworks. Most extraction took place in Ojos Negros, although Setiles ore was among the highest grade.
The end of the era
In 1972 the narrow-gauge mining train ceased running, replaced by a broad-gauge branch line. On 27 April 1987, the remaining 215 workers clocked out for the final time. Today you can explore the open-cast pits and their brightly coloured lakes; very close by is the Setiles lagoon.
Location
● Reference point · ● Villages · ● Places
Location diagram. Detailed map with tracks and names loads on zoom.
Reference villages: Setiles · El Pedregal · Tordesilos · Tordellego.
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