Almadén
Almadén municipality | ||
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coat of arms | Map of Spain | |
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Basic data | ||
Autonomous Community : | Castile-La Mancha | |
Province : | Ciudad Real | |
Coordinates | 38 ° 46 ′ N , 4 ° 50 ′ W | |
Height : | 589 msnm | |
Area : | 239.64 km² | |
Residents : | 5,312 (Jan 1, 2019) | |
Population density : | 22.17 inh / km² | |
Postal code : | 13400 | |
Municipality number ( INE ): | 13011 |
Almadén is a municipality in the Spanish province of Ciudad Real in the autonomous region of Castilla-La Mancha .
The name is derived from the Arabic termالمعادن / al-maʿādin / 'the minerals'.
Near Almadén are the largest deposits of vermilion on earth. These have been mined for mercury production since ancient times . Around a third of the mercury ever extracted worldwide comes from here. In earlier centuries prisoners, who often suffered from mercury poisoning, were often used for this purpose. According to a contemporary study from the 16th century, 24% of inmates died before completing their sentence. Funding was discontinued in 2003 for economic reasons and to protect the environment .
In place of the Almadén mine , a European mercury repository is currently (as of March 2013) being built with co-financing from the LIFE (EU) program. The mining site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2012 together with the Slovenian Idrija mine . A museum has been built on the site of the mine, from which guided tours into the interior of the facilities from the 16th to 18th centuries are offered.
Web links
- Information on the history and gastronomy of Almadéns in Spanish
- http://www.ecologistasenaccion.org/article.php3?id_article=1894
- Dando un paseo por Almadén ( Memento of October 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Contaminación, reales decretos, y el legado minero de España ( Memento of October 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Operator of the repository and the museum
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).
- ↑ a b Milara, F. Javier Carrasco: The mining park of Almadén. In: Urban Research & Practice. 4 (2), 2011, pp. 215-218, doi : 10.1080 / 17535069.2011.605847 .
- ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Heritage of Mercury. Almadén and Idrija
- ↑ MAYASA: Mining park of Almadén ( Memento from June 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive )