This might end up being a long one because of both the very eventful history of the place and the explore itself... I hope you like reading.
There's an area near the border with France where there are some abandoned talc mines. This one, officially called the Canta Mine, started in 1868 as a humble family business.
No one could have prepared the Canta family for what came to them in 1937, when for a time, the government confiscated the property...to hide something.
Not the time or place for a lengthy history lesson, but basically between 1936-1939 there was a civil war in Spain which pitted the legitimate republican government against the fascists led by Franco, who ended up winning and blablabla... The thing that concerns us is that 6 months after the war started, the republican government in Madrid was in need for a safe place to store valuables and works of art.
So one day in 1937, the republican army evicted the miners, and the whole mountain was established as a no-go zone.
It was the perfect spot to set up a bunker: Up a treacharous mountain range, a footstep away from France, and most importantly, with tunnels. The works were surveyed by Juan Negrín, son of the president of the republic himself, and when everything was ready, the most valuable paintings from the Museo del Prado (Spain's national art museum) were brought in to this remote corner of the world and stored in a safe room specially built inside the mine. They stayed there until 1939, when on the night of the 4th of February, the fascists had occupied most of Catalonia and were about to reach the area, so the art finally left for France loaded in 71 trucks, to be then loaded on a ship to Mexico.
After the war, the mine was returned to the Canta family, which ran it until 1993 when it was forced to close for not complying with safety reasons. Here's an old news extract from the closure of the mine.
I think that's a really interesting piece of history, and I love being underground so there I went... From online pictures, people seemed to have gone quite far into the main adit, and I found a little, let's say 'obscure' blog with a picture of a gallery that was claiming to be 'the gallery to the underground bunker'.
sentimentsaflordepell.blogspot.com
Sooo if you're still reading (yes, the pics will come soon, don't worry) it's time to tell you about the very funny events of the day. We knew people had been in there last summer, and access was coming and going, but we had a plan. That was the plan (screenshot taken while investigating online before going):
So we arrived there all kitted up, ready to dislodge a shoulder and do impossible contortions, when turning the corner to the mine building I see... a worker. They were restoring the place.
We just plainly asked if we could take pictures, to which he looked a litte confused but agreed. I'm sorry there's no pics of the exteriors, it all looked a little sad with the construction work.
The inside of the exterior building/bunker was also pretty featurless, but there was this rail that they used to lower the crates of artwork down the shaft, to then be transported away
to the safety of the mine:
After wondering how to proceed, we also just plainly asked the worker if we could go inside the mine, that we knew what we were doing and had came prepared. He said we should wait for the boss who'd be arriving at any time, so we did. By the time the boss arrived, they were a crew of 3. They told us some heritage institution is slowly restoring the mine but that they were just a construction crew, not heritage experts or engineers or people who care about much anything at all. We chatted for a bit and they agreed to let us inside while they kept working on the entrance. I kid you not, they were 'restoring' the mine without using not even a cheap hardhat, and what's more puzzling, no headlamps or lighting source of any kind other than their damn phones! These 3 guys were carrying the remains of a heavy ore cart in the dark, with no light and no safety equipment whatsoever... So I guess than when they saw our helmets and lamps, there was no reason to say no... One of them followed us for a little, and when the 'good stuff' started, he was actually puzzled that we wanted to continue. For a moment he was hesitant if he should allow us to follow, I offered to sign a non-responsibility paper and he just said 'nono, better no paper...' We agreed on not having seen each other and after that, he turned back and we finally had the mine for ourselves. Would we find the lost bunker?
This adit carried on for a while, and after that, a more unstable section.
It started to be quite sketchy, I guess talc is not the hardest of materials to build tunnels...
Our hopes came to an end after this last section, with a few nasty collapses that looked quite fresh and completely blocked the way further.
We had planned to spend more time underground, overall the whole length of the mine was maybe 600 metres before it collapsed, but it was still a really fun morning out in a historically significant place being 'restored' by a very colorful crew of characters. I wish them well.
For those of you history geeks wanting to dig into this mine and what went on here, just google 'Mina de'n Negrin La Vajol'.
There's an area near the border with France where there are some abandoned talc mines. This one, officially called the Canta Mine, started in 1868 as a humble family business.
No one could have prepared the Canta family for what came to them in 1937, when for a time, the government confiscated the property...to hide something.
Not the time or place for a lengthy history lesson, but basically between 1936-1939 there was a civil war in Spain which pitted the legitimate republican government against the fascists led by Franco, who ended up winning and blablabla... The thing that concerns us is that 6 months after the war started, the republican government in Madrid was in need for a safe place to store valuables and works of art.
So one day in 1937, the republican army evicted the miners, and the whole mountain was established as a no-go zone.
It was the perfect spot to set up a bunker: Up a treacharous mountain range, a footstep away from France, and most importantly, with tunnels. The works were surveyed by Juan Negrín, son of the president of the republic himself, and when everything was ready, the most valuable paintings from the Museo del Prado (Spain's national art museum) were brought in to this remote corner of the world and stored in a safe room specially built inside the mine. They stayed there until 1939, when on the night of the 4th of February, the fascists had occupied most of Catalonia and were about to reach the area, so the art finally left for France loaded in 71 trucks, to be then loaded on a ship to Mexico.
After the war, the mine was returned to the Canta family, which ran it until 1993 when it was forced to close for not complying with safety reasons. Here's an old news extract from the closure of the mine.
I think that's a really interesting piece of history, and I love being underground so there I went... From online pictures, people seemed to have gone quite far into the main adit, and I found a little, let's say 'obscure' blog with a picture of a gallery that was claiming to be 'the gallery to the underground bunker'.
Reivindicant la Mina Canta de la Vajol o búnquer d'en Negrín
(Búnquer d'en Negrín a La Vajol) Tenia intenció d'escriure una columna de blog cada dia... i em falten hores... He aquí el ...
sentimentsaflordepell.blogspot.com
Sooo if you're still reading (yes, the pics will come soon, don't worry) it's time to tell you about the very funny events of the day. We knew people had been in there last summer, and access was coming and going, but we had a plan. That was the plan (screenshot taken while investigating online before going):
So we arrived there all kitted up, ready to dislodge a shoulder and do impossible contortions, when turning the corner to the mine building I see... a worker. They were restoring the place.
We just plainly asked if we could take pictures, to which he looked a litte confused but agreed. I'm sorry there's no pics of the exteriors, it all looked a little sad with the construction work.
The inside of the exterior building/bunker was also pretty featurless, but there was this rail that they used to lower the crates of artwork down the shaft, to then be transported away
to the safety of the mine:
After wondering how to proceed, we also just plainly asked the worker if we could go inside the mine, that we knew what we were doing and had came prepared. He said we should wait for the boss who'd be arriving at any time, so we did. By the time the boss arrived, they were a crew of 3. They told us some heritage institution is slowly restoring the mine but that they were just a construction crew, not heritage experts or engineers or people who care about much anything at all. We chatted for a bit and they agreed to let us inside while they kept working on the entrance. I kid you not, they were 'restoring' the mine without using not even a cheap hardhat, and what's more puzzling, no headlamps or lighting source of any kind other than their damn phones! These 3 guys were carrying the remains of a heavy ore cart in the dark, with no light and no safety equipment whatsoever... So I guess than when they saw our helmets and lamps, there was no reason to say no... One of them followed us for a little, and when the 'good stuff' started, he was actually puzzled that we wanted to continue. For a moment he was hesitant if he should allow us to follow, I offered to sign a non-responsibility paper and he just said 'nono, better no paper...' We agreed on not having seen each other and after that, he turned back and we finally had the mine for ourselves. Would we find the lost bunker?
This adit carried on for a while, and after that, a more unstable section.
It started to be quite sketchy, I guess talc is not the hardest of materials to build tunnels...
Our hopes came to an end after this last section, with a few nasty collapses that looked quite fresh and completely blocked the way further.
We had planned to spend more time underground, overall the whole length of the mine was maybe 600 metres before it collapsed, but it was still a really fun morning out in a historically significant place being 'restored' by a very colorful crew of characters. I wish them well.
For those of you history geeks wanting to dig into this mine and what went on here, just google 'Mina de'n Negrin La Vajol'.
