History of Basque Country mining museum

The Basque Country Mining Museum – located in the old slaughterhouse of the neighbourhood of Gallarta, at the feet of the startling worksite of the Concha 2 mine – describes the history of mining in the Basque Country to a wider audience with a spectacular collection of parts, tools, machinery and documentation that was gathered over years in the mountains and factories by volunteer former miners from the Cultural Association of the Mining Museum.

A bit of history

  • The Basque Country Mining Museum is a non-profit organisation that was born out of a social initiative in 1986, when the Mining Museum Cultural Association was created.

    This is an association made up of former miners and iron and steel workers, among others, who saw how the components that had been part of the essence of Bizkaia up until that point were being abandoned during an industrial crisis.

  • Once the association was created, it made selfless efforts to recover and preserve the components that the mining business had generated including mine carts, tools, photos and documents to ensure that this part of our history wasn’t forgotten. In 2002, the Basque Country Mining Museum Foundation was created with collaboration from the Abanto-Zierbena city council.

  • In 2001, the museum opened its doors in the old slaughterhouse in the neighbourhood of Gallarta. The Mining Museum Association thus felt that one of its goals had been achieved: describe and share with a wide audience the collection of parts, tools, machinery and documents that had been gathered over years in the mountains and factories.

  • Since then, it has continued to publish monographs as well as organise exhibits and activities for all audiences. It has fostered research and gathered oral testimonies and is currently involved in a process of strategic reflection that would allow it to successfully take on the major projects of the future like constructing a new building.

  • The Basque Country Mining Museum is dedicated to studying and sharing knowledge about the culture and history of mining in the Basque Country and especially in the mining area of Bizkaia. Its main objectives are as follows:

    • • Encouraging the study and sharing of knowledge of the historical development of mining activity and its economic, social and environmental consequences.
    • • Protecting and recovering material, industrial, urban and infrastructure components from the mining business.
    • • Recovering and preserving documents, files, blueprints, images, drawings and photos from the period relating to mining.