Mining town in Almería for sale for 1.5 million; reason, the Junta de Andalucía

Chema Rodríguez Sevilla

Seville

Updated Tuesday, February 13, 2024-01:34

For 1.5 million euros, the starting price, you can acquire the heart of an old mining town located in the heart of the Sierra de los Filabres, in the province of Almería. In a few weeks, some of the main buildings in Las Menas will go up for auction. What were the central offices, the casino and the movie club of what was

the most important

lead and iron mine of its time now have a 'for sale' sign hanging, as does the singles pavilion, intended for the miners who had no family.

Las Menas was, in its heyday,

a true city

with all the services. From a hospital, a bachelor's ward (for miners who had no family), a draftsman's house and even a hermitage dedicated, of course, to Santa Bárbara. Nearly 3,000 people lived there and tons of mineral were extracted from its 25 kilometers of galleries.

Until 1968, the mining heart of Las Menas beat strongly, but that year it went out, the veins exhausted and, above all, due to

competition from other deposits

, such as the Rif. Its streets, its hospital, its casino and its cinema club were abandoned and were victims of looting and vandalism until the complex was restored and recovered for tourism and as an attraction for the municipality of Serón, in whose district it is located.

General view of the old mining town of Menas de Serón.CARLOS BARBAARABA PRESS

But the project was not very successful and the office building, converted into an aparthotel, the casino and the cinema club, transformed into a restaurant, and the singles pavilion, as a service building, have been plunged back into poverty in recent years

. oblivion

_

Property of the Junta de Andalucía, the government of Juanma Moreno has included the town of Las Menas - its most emblematic buildings - in its plan to get rid of

unused or underused heritage

to make cash. Specifically, the old mining buildings have been included in a lot formed by Las Menas and three of the hotel complexes that were part of the network of tourist villages in Andalusia, a ruinous business that has cost the public coffers 24 million euros. . They are the tourist towns of Fuenteheridos, in Huelva, Pinar de la Vidriera, in the Granada town of Huéscar, and Cazalla de la Sierra, in Seville. For the four, the Board hopes to get around four million euros.

But the Las Menas auction has encountered an unexpected obstacle. The municipality of Serón, with its mayor, Manuel Martínez at the helm, has rebelled against the intention of the autonomous Administration to sell a good piece of the mining town that is not only the

main tourist attraction

of the town, but of the entire region. of Almanzora.

The Sierra de los Filabres, in fact, depended largely on mining activity in the past and when this was exhausted it plunged into a

deep crisis

from which it tried to escape by specializing in the production of meat products and, singularly, in ham production.

The entire town, the councilor clarifies, is protected as an

Asset of Cultural Interest

(BIC) and has not only an economic value, especially with a view to the development of tourism in the area, but also a "sentimental value" as it does not stop be, Martínez adds, an essential part of Serón's past and identity.

For all this, he announces that he is going to

fight

so that Las Menas "is not privatized" and has started by meeting with the general director of Patrimony of the Board, Joaquín Gallardo, whom he has asked to back down and remove from the auction to the mining town and then transfer ownership of the buildings to the municipality. The mayor wants them to become part of Serón's heritage and has in mind to recover their use through a concession, always without losing ownership of the properties.

Although his impression is that the Board "is not going to give in", he is convinced that the auction, as far as Las Menas is concerned, "is going to be deserted" and that, then, the autonomous Government will consider negotiating with Serón . Of course, he clarifies, that he does not intend a sale. "It would be absurd, it cannot be a commercial,

speculative

transaction ," he points out.

Part of the abandoned complex of Las Menas,CARLOS BARBAARABA PRESS

"There is an important reaction among citizens, people are angry and initiatives are being proposed," warns the mayor.

Tourism is seen in Serón as a new opportunity to get on the development train and in the

plans

of its municipal corporation, the mining past and, fundamentally, Las Menas, have a leading role.

Its Strategic Tourism Sustainability Plan foresees investments in the town and its revitalization, with a project to rehabilitate some of the exploitation galleries and the recovery of the so-called

Camino de los Gresadors

, which the mine's greasers used to maintain the cable, the railway track through which the mineral was transported. They want to turn it into a trail with hanging bridges in the style of the Camino del Rey, in the province of Malaga.

For their part, the Ministry of Economy, Finance and European Funds - on which Patrimony depends - assures that they have offered to award the buildings to the Serón City Council "for the

minimum value

, without obtaining any return." And, they add, "it is not true that we have urged you to bid in the auction."

Likewise, the Board would be willing to give up, free of charge, the

forest park

, which includes the director's old house and the interpretation center, to use it for a public purpose. These sources recall that the City Council has already assigned the area intended for camping for years.

The auction in which you can bid for the mining town of Las Menas, for part of the complex, is scheduled for a few months. Until then, Serón threatens to fight for a piece of his municipality and

his past

.