Emblema de Hispania, S.L. (Manuel Lara, 2010)

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Fachada de Hispania, S.L. (Manuel Lara, 2010)

Arsenal de Ferrol (Juan Pita da Veiga, 1987)

Best wishes and a happy New Year

Published by Edicións Embora the schoolmistress Manuela Santalla’s book “Muíños, fornos e pan de Neda” was presented recently. Her documented work turns around the pre industrial installations moved by the waters of the Belelle: grist mills, of course, but also paper mills, the fabrics factory of Veiga and the power plant of A Fervenza settled by the river.

Craftsmanship and his daughter, industry, with a series of practices and techniques, supposed the creation of the necessary objects to give an answer to the needs of each moment, techniques that were a result of the genius and of the personal peculiarity of the artisan and of the original industrial, authentic reflection of the deeper being of a village, a time and a place.

Therefore, as we cannot lose our language, if we want to keep on being ourselves, we cannot forget the footprints of the craftsmanship and of our first industry, in spite of the collapse of the rural world and of those small villages, the handmade and the industrial ones, that one day configured our reality and our difference.

In March 2006, the 1st European Conference of Industrial Tourism was held in Angers (France), organized by the Assembly of French Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ACFCI), the Angers Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Angers Tourist Organization and the University of Angers.

In November 2008, Toledo (Spain) hosted the 2nd European Conference organized by the Toledo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Assembly of French Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ACFCI) and the Upper Council of Spanish Chambers of the Commerce and Industry.

In October 2010, Turin (Italy) was the seat of the 3rd European Conference. It was organized by the Turin Chamber of Commerce and the Tourist Organization of the Province of Turin.

All the European Conference editions are targeted to tourist professionals, public authorities, business organisations, tourist consultants, interested companies, industrial heritage associations, University academics and students.

The 4th European Industrial Tourism Conference will be held in São João da Madeira (Aveiro District, Porto Metropolitan Area, Portugal) on 22 and 23 November 2012, at the Arts and Creativity Centre.

São João da Madeira City Council is the official pioneer of Industrial Tourism in Portugal. It has developed the programme entitled “Industrial Heritage Routes at São João da Madeira”, which will be a reality at the end of 2011.

This Conference is expected to boost Industrial Tourism in Portugal, by raising the awareness and know-how of the national public bodies and interested companies, as well as promoting networking among them. The 4th Conference is also likely to set off a first-ever European Industrial Tourism Network. For more information please link http://www.portugalturismoindustrial.com

Taking advantage of the gorge of the Miño River close to his confluence with the Sil River, the newly-established company “Fuerzas Eléctricas del Noroeste, S.A.” (FENOSA) began in 1947 to build a hydroelectric power plant in the vicinity of Os Peares (amidst Carballedo and Pantón, Lugo, and A Peroxa, Ourense). With a maximum height of 94 m above foundations and a length of 261 m in coronation, the dam of Os Peares regulates up to 150 m3/s carried by the Miño River trough the site with a 159 MW power plant that produces an average of 567 GWh per annum.
On the steep right slope of the river a series of buildings were raised to house to the workers during the construction of the dam and the power plant, constructions that form a true village and that after the entrance in service of the installations in the year 1955, served to lodge to the direction and to the employees commissioned of the exploitation of the power plant. Besides the industrial buildings and the houses for the workers and directors, the village had school, company store, infirmary, cinema, garages and warehouse, and even with a small church projected in 1956 by Antonio Tenreiro Brochón, in which he reflected the new interests of that young generation of architects that initiated his careers in the decade of 1950.
The automation of the hydroelectric power plant tackled by the company in the year 2000 did unnecessary the permanence of the employees in the own location, and the village was being left until remaining totally abandoned.
His current proprietary, the company Gas Natural Fenosa, proposed by the end of the 2010 decade to invest some eight million euro to rehabilitate the village as a training centre, endowed with classrooms, accommodations and service areas to attend annually to more than twenty thousand students. The works begun last September and it is planned that the Os Peares Training Centre can start operation by the end of 2012.

Fábrica de A Raspiña, acaroada á ponte de Vilanova (Manuel Lara, 2011)

It was already ancient the debt contracted with this very beautiful town where we can find in so many and so fondly taken care footprints of the first industrialization: fabrics, leathers and –of course– the gristmills of the Arnoia, with his inimitable breather. It is clear why in 1994 it snatched to Berlin the maximum qualification in the European Urbanism Awards with the Ordination and Integral Recovery Plan for the Historical Settlement of Allariz and his River. We will go gently incorporating to our Inventory his rich heritage: A Raspiña, Acearrica, O Rexo, Vilanova…

Fábrica de A Casqueira, en Vilaboa de Allariz (Manuel Lara, 2011)

E-FAITH, the European Federation of Associations of Industrial and Technical Heritage is the European platform promoting contacts and co-operation between nonprofit volunteer associations, the place where those can meet, exchange experiences, learn from each other and support each other’s activities and campaigns. After the successful meetings in Beringen and Kortrijk (Belgium), Barcelona (Spain), and Calais (France) each attended by representatives from a dozen countries, E-FAITH is now going to organize in Tilburg (The Netherlands) a Fifth European Contact Weekend for volunteers and nonprofit organizations that are engaged in the research, the preservation, the interpretation and/or the presentation of the industrial and technical heritage. It will again be an open and stimulating meeting where organizations and individuals can present and compare their ideas, projects and results, and find out where cooperation or common projects can grow, how they can support the aims of colleagues and how colleagues can support their objectives. This will be possible by lectures and oral presentations, leaflets, information stands, posters and small exhibits. Each participant is allowed to use the presentation techniques that to him/her seems to be the most appropriate. The main themes of the meeting regarding industrial and technical heritage will be: – Campaign for an European Industrial and Technical Heritage Year – European border crossing cooperation between associations – twinning between associations – exchanging experiences from the field – discussing the possibilities of launching joint European projects

Audax Textielmuseum (Tilburg, The Netherlands)

Río Navia entre A Fornaza e Riodeporcos (Manuel Lara, 2011)

Longer summertime days help us to calmly walk up and down the high sierras in A Fonsagrada, facing to Asturias. Down by the river there we found the old mining mills where lead and silver from A Fornaza and Riodeporcos was obtained. In our “Inventory” you may find the relevant data to easily reach there.

Fábrica de bombillas Iria (Manuel Lara, 2011)

Certainly this web seems a little static, but take a look to the inventory: we continue walking through the country and we soon shall reach some two hundred entries.

Fábrica de curtidos A Pinguela (Manuel Lara, 2009)