The Mining Area of Puertollano: the Post-industrial Landscape

Since the early 20th century, Puertollano, a town in the south of the Ciudad Real province, has been a key site for Spanish energy production. The construction of its landscape is inextricably linked to soft coal mining, in the form of deep mining until the 1970s, and surface mining from then on to the present day. These mining landscapes have also led to the emergence of an entire synergetic system of energy transformation: thermal power stations, oil refineries, chemical production and, in recent years, solar energy plants.

The landscape study of the Puertollano mining area has researched its built heritage and potential for territorial development, as stipulated in the Town and Country Planning strategy that is pending approval by the regional government. The study has identified and described the features that make up the mining and industry landscape, attempting to highlight the areas that could be put to new use without losing the cultural significance associated with the processes that shaped them.

Accordingly, the project sought innovation from a methodological point of view. To this end, the functional study of the landscape was based on the interdependent relationships established between natural and socio-economic processes in the territorial system, incorporating the concept of heritage. The project thus set out to design a dynamic model with which to identify the agents, parameters and links that determine the landscape’s transformation.