Degradación y pérdida del patrimonio minero en Hiendelaencina, Guadalajara, España. Deterioration and loss of mining heritage in Hiendelaencina, Guadalajara, Spain.

Abstract

The mining district of Hiendelaencina was the most important in all of Europe for Silver extraction during the 19th century. As mining activities definitively ceased in the late 20th century, after periods of both splendor and decline, the abandoned remains constituted a significant mining, industrial, and architectural heritage that, over time, has been gradually lost despite some efforts to transform them into museums. In recent decades, the degradation, de-molition, or collapse (total or partial) of mining and ancillary buildings, the loss of safety elements (such as deterio-ration of protective walls in mine shafts), the accumulation of waste, vandalism, theft, and looting of metal elements from mining infrastructure, as well as non-structural elements of the buildings, have led to the definitive loss of cer-tain elements of this heritage in this mining municipality. This is an example of how direct inaction regarding the re-covery, conservation, and maintenance of heritage results in its degradation and short- to medium-term loss. Although there are actions aimed at museumification, many of the actual remnants from that era of mining splendor have been lost forever and will only remain as memories in written and graphic documents.