The San Blas Ironworks, in the Leonese town of Sabero, was the first coke blast furnace steel complex that came into operation in Spain in the mid-19th century. The advanced technology used at the time was a short-lived boost for the economic development of the mining basin. An important cultural legacy has remained from that short splendor, without which it would be impossible to understand in all its magnitude the model of life and the needs of those men and women, whose existence was linked to the mine.
The impressive neo-Gothic building of the old San Blas Ironworks today houses the Museum of Steel and Mining of Castile and León, a genuine exhibition space that allows you to learn about the details of a pioneering industrial activity of its time through the different rooms.
A first room presents different tools related to mining and industrial activity, as well as information panels on the history and facilities.
A side nave contextualizes the visitor in the environment, in the way that history has left its marks in the valley from prehistory to industrialization, passing through Romanization and the Middle Ages.
Suddenly, the large central nave unfolds its captivating image of fifteen meters high to house a complete set of machines of the time, tools, information panels and a huge model of the mining basin in an educational attempt to better understand the magnitude of the industrial activity at the time.
The other side nave corresponds to what was the adjustment workshop, where the turning, construction and repair machines of the components necessary for the normal operation of the factory are kept.
The pharmacy is another unique space, because in addition to preserving the atmosphere of those nineteenth-century facilities, it represented an advance in terms of the health care provided to the working class of the time.
