Category Archives: Industrial past

History of the metal industry in Bizkaia, Spain.

The Vizcaya Bridge, symbol of the industrial revolution

Triumphal arch under which all boats heading for Bilbao had to pass, the Vizcaya Bridge [...]

The Bilbao estuary, the backbone of Basque industrialization

The Bilbao Estuary, with its current calm, has been witness for more than a century [...]

Forges: cultural heritage to be discovered

Nowadays, finding the ruins of a forge in any bend of a river is a [...]

The mining landscapes

The silent witnesses of an industrial past that marked both the territory and its inhabitants

Art as a witness of the transformations

During the period between approximately 1876 and 1936, the true golden age of Basque mining [...]

Iron in literature

Iron ore has left a deep mark in the literature about our land. Since ancient [...]

The re-emergence of the basque iron and Steel industry

After the crisis of the 80s and 90s of the 20th century, the Basque siderurgical [...]

Modern siderurgy in Bizkaia

In the chapter dedicated to mining we saw how the abolition of the foral regime [...]

Hydraulic forges

Hydraulic forges: still living vestiges of our iron and steel past

The haizeolak or mountain ironworks, the first basque iron and steel industry

The haizeolak, a rudimentary system continued to be used, without too many modifications, for more [...]

Iron mining in Bizkaia

About the most primary of the activities linked to iron: that of its extraction from [...]

Past, present and future of an industrial enclave

The history of an industrial area that has survived the different situations for more than [...]