Linares – History and Art

Linares was just a stop on the road to break up a long journey but we’ll be back! Why? Read on!

Our intention had been to visit the mining museum situated in a building behind the Estación de Madrid, a historic building in its own right. Sadly, we got there just before 1.30pm as the museum was closing its doors and it wasn’t reopening until 4pm. A shame as it looks like it will be very interesting, albeit rather smaller than expected. It’s one of the reasons we will be back! The lead mines of Linares operated almost uninterrupted from pre-Roman times until the 1990s. There were also lead smelters and gunpowder, dynamite and rope factories in the city.

The old Estación de Madrid houses local government offices today but you can wander freely around the gardens. It’s a fantastic building really reflecting the richness of the area’s industrial heritage. It was built in 1877 and continued to be used for freight trains up until 1987 when it was left to rack and ruin. Five years later the local authorities took control of the station and began to restore it to its current state.

Just outside the old station is the Paseo de Linarejos which is a wide boulevard full of tiled benches. It’s a lovely place to sit with a picnic lunch and hear the parakeets screeching in the trees above you! The tiles tell the story of the city and you can see pictures of old mining communities, schools, railways and even the football team (the forefathers of the current Linares Deportivo). There are interesting statues at each end, but we failed to find out more about them!!

Just beyond the fountain with the man in the middle is an old Land Rover on a roundabout. This seemed very odd until we did our research! In the mid- 20th century lead mining began to decline but Linares was reinventing itself by creating a powerful manufacturing and commercial industry. The local automobile manufacturing plant was opened in 1956 making, you guessed it, the Land Rover! In the 1960s, the Land Rover Santana was an important vehicle in the agricultural world and its production continued until 1994. Now that Land Rover on the roundabout makes a lot more sense!!

At the other end of the paseo you’ll find the city centre. We wandered around the outside of the picturesque bullring, complete with a statue of a bull and plaques commemorating local bullfighters. Nearby is one of the city’s old banks showing some of the grand architecture that used to abound here.

As well as all that history, we found a lot of buildings with huge murals on the side. They were an impressive collection but are rather spread around so you do need to wander a bit.

Of particular note was the collection we found on and around the old Ministry of Agriculture cereals building. On the walls around the enclosure are some older murals but the building itself is currently being repainted in very bright colours. The giant mural of the woman wearing a coat decorated in dragons is particularly impressive.

So now you see why we have to go back to Linares. There’s more local history to discover should we be there on a day and at times when the museums are actually open! Rookie error!! Have you been to Linares? Tell us what we have missed out on in the comments below.