Santa Filomena mine: Garaballa's copper

Santa Filomena mine

Santa Filomena mine, in Garaballa's Barranco de la Canaleja near the boundary with Talayuelas, worked a vein of silver-bearing grey copper ore. The Sociedad Minera Santa Filomena formed in Cuenca in 1848 and executed its deed in 1854; the 1867 Estadística Minera recorded it as idle, and attempts were made to reopen it with English capital in the late 19th century. Galleries survive.

Copper in the Barranco de la Canaleja

The Serranía Baja (lower Serranía) has small iron veins and, to a lesser extent, copper veins, with slag heaps from old smelting works around many of them. The most extensively worked was Santa Filomena, in the Barranco de la Canaleja in Garaballa, very close to Talayuelas: a vein of silver-bearing grey copper ore.

It was worked by the Sociedad Minera Santa Filomena, formed in Cuenca in 1848 among lawyers and property owners from the provincial capital, which executed its deed in 1854. The mines lay on land belonging to the Marchioness of Moya, who at that time was Eugenia de Montijo. In 1867 the mine was idle: its future depended on coal from Henarejos and a railway branch that never arrived. The workings were cleared between 1888 and 1890, all rights were relinquished in 1896, and in 1898 the owners sold it, as «Pico de Ranera» (Ranera Peak), to an English company.

Plan your visit

Before you travel

There are open galleries: do not enter or disturb the slag heaps.

Combine with

The Cerro de las Minas, the company’s other mine, and the monastery of Tejeda, in the same municipality.

Frequently asked questions

Who worked it?

The Sociedad Minera Santa Filomena, formed in Cuenca in February 1848 by lawyers and property owners from the provincial capital; it signed its deed in 1854 and published its regulations in 1855. It also worked the Amistad mine on Talayuelas's Cerro de las Minas.

Can you go inside?

No. Old mines have shafts and galleries: view them from outside.

Carry on from here

This place through time

Which eras you can read here

A single place can keep traces of several periods. These layers connect what you see with the atlas's stories.

Carlists, Madoz and disentailment · 19th century

Where it is

In colour, the municipality. The place does not yet have a verified location, so no point is drawn. Municipal boundaries: © IGN (CC BY 4.0). Route lines: simplified official tracks; source and GPX on each page.