Las Médulas is an historic gold-mining site near the town of Ponferrada. It was the most important gold mine, as well as the largest open-pit gold mine, in the entire Roman Empire.
Las Médulas Cultural Landscape is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Advanced aerial surveys conducted in 2014 have confirmed the wide extent of the Roman-era works. The spectacular landscape of Las Médulas resulted from the ruina montium (wrecking of the mountains), a Roman mining technique described by Pliny the Elder in 77 AD.The technique employed was a type of hydraulic mining which involved undermining a mountain with large quantities of water. The water was supplied by interbasin transfer. At least seven long aqueducts tapped the streams of the La Cabrera district (where the rainfall in the mountains is relatively high) at a range of altitudes. The same aqueducts were used to wash the extensive alluvial gold deposits.
Parts of the aqueducts are still well preserved in precipitous locations, including some rock-cut inscriptions. Systematic archaeological studies of the area have been carried out since 1988. As a result, Las Médulas ceased to be only a gold mine with its techniques and became a cultural landscape in which all the implications of Roman mining were made apparent. The survey and excavations of pre-Roman and Roman settlements throughout the area allowed for new historical interpretations that greatly enriched the study of Roman mining. A positive result of these systematic studies was the inclusion of Las Médulas as a World Heritage Site in 1997. Since then, the management of the Cultural Park has been monitored by the Las Médulas Foundation, which includes local, regional, and national stakeholders, both public and private. Currently, Las Médulas serves as an example of good research-management-society applied to heritage.
The massive scale of mining at Las Médulas and other Roman sites had considerable environmental impact. Ice core data taken from Greenland suggest that mineral air pollution peaked during the Roman period in Spain. Levels of atmospheric lead from this period were not reached again until the Industrial Revolution some 1,700 years later. The inclusion of Las Médulas as a World Heritage Site was controversial for similar reasons. The delegate from Thailand opposed the designation because he considered the site "a result of human destructive activities as well as harmful to the noble cause of environmental promotion and protection."
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Visitor Centre. Park House of the Medulas Here, visitors can obtain an overview of the natural monument and details of places of interest and routes. There are audiovisual resources, as well as 360º panoramic images of several of the sites in this natural space and materials to help visitors plan their day. Information is also available about the park’s Visitor Centre and the Castilla y León Natural Spaces Network (REN). Address: Calle de Abajo, s/n. Carucedo. 24442 León.
Walks
1.This route inside the mine is probably one of the most amazing route in Las Médulas We leave Orellán village from Los Conventos Path in the same Country inn, surrounded by chestnut trees and vegetation; in this path you could enjoy of wonderful views and nature and we´ll walk to Orellán Viewpoint. This first walk is about 2 kilometres but is worthwhile. We need to stop in the Viewpoint, from here we can see all the valley and the Gold mine and we´ll buy the ticket to visit the inside galleries where the excavations took place and admire the constructions of the locals. We´ll stop to have a snack and a drink and continue to la Cuevona along la Valiñas path We leave the entrance to the Viewpoint behind and we turn right to the track following the signs until find a sign to go toward Camino del Mirador path which guide us to La Cuevona, La Encantada and after we will go down to Médulas village. We´ll spend most of the time there and we´ll take the path back . If you don´t want to walk so much you can go until Orellán Viewpoint by car and leave the car in the car park, then you only walk to the Viewpoint and La Cuevona and La Encantada.