MINING VILLAGE OF BUSTIELLO

To make this place a moral beacon where a mining elite would be used as a counter-example to the subversive and dangerous behaviour of minors in the region, this was the goal dreamed and realized by the Marquis de Comillas, president of the Spanish Coal Society. Built between 1890 and 1925 on land purchased by the marquis, this mining village mixes various architectural elements: British workers'cities, French-style jardins, Catalan modernism keys and traditional asturiens elements, but it mainly gives us the opportunity to see and understand the establishment and operation of a project illustrating Christian industrial paternalism, with its order and hierarchies. Uniform houses, Neo-Romanesque church, old casino (operating as an anti-tavern), residences of engineers: everything is designed to decide with the chaos of the nearby mining villages. The land will also be developed with small mounds: church and public buildings at the highest level, the second level and the workers'houses at the lowest level. Housed in adjacent pavilions with two families with independent gardens, these families were selected among thousands of others (most often foremen or supervisors). They were paying rent and the products of the commissary, and the culture of their garden was used to leave the village, which was only possible by a bridge, systematically monitored by a guard. Living in rather comfortable conditions, they were well treated, in application of the Christian principles of the marquis, but they could not drink alcohol or read a newspaper other than that published by the marquis. In the 1970 s, these houses were sold to their tenants. Today, the old school houses a youth hostel and the home occupied by the chief engineer has become a centre of interpretation, with a panoramic and vigilant view of the 40 houses of workers.

The village visit can continue in the Turón Valley with all industrial Archaeology (bridges, tunnels, turrets) also illustrating the mining history of the region and which is part of the protected landscape of the mining basins (cuencas mineras), with passages in the most emblematic places such as Puits Espinos, Pozu Fortuna San José or Santa Bárbara. The latter is under restoration.