The best traffic-free bike rides around Chillón

The Plaza de Toros de Almadén, also known as Plaza Nueva, is a historical monument located in Almadén (Ciudad Real, Spain) and is famous worldwide for its characteristic and unique hexagonal floor plan. Built between 1752 and 1752 for the famous mercury mines in the area

A hexagonal shape, unique in the world. A complex of 24 two-story houses surrounds the bullring, forming a single block. Built between 1752 and 1765 at the initiative of Superintendent Francisco Javier de Villegas. Purpose: to provide employment for miners during forced work stoppages and to raise funds for the Royal Miners' Hospital of San Rafael through bullfights and the rental of houses. First bullfights: October 1752, with 21 bulls fought. Declared a Site of Cultural Interest in 1979 and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2012 as part of the "Mercury Heritage: Almadén and Idrija."

It is a tribute to the miners who worked in the Almadén mercury mines, protagonists of more than 2,000 years of mining history. The idea arose in 1953, but it did not materialize until 1996, thanks to a public subscription and institutional contributions. It was inaugurated on September 8, 1996, coinciding with the feast day of Our Lady of the Mines.

Today it houses the Mining Museum and the Historical Archive of the Almadén Mines, with documents dating back to the 17th century. The visit includes: Room 1: History of the hospital and its role in occupational health. Room 2: The mercury metallurgy process and its technological evolution. Room 3: Life and customs of the region. Audiovisual displays, dioramas, and panels on diseases such as hydrargyrism and innovative treatments (the sauna-box, "the beach"). Dungeons where sick prisoners were treated. Exhibition of mining tools, machinery, and artifacts.

In the Alcudia Valley lies Almadén, a town linked to mining since ancient times, dyed with the reddish cinnabar of its cave paintings. The Romans opened up this land to extract the precious metal coveted in the empire as a dye, cosmetic or ointment. Since those times and despite the vagaries of exploitation or demand, Almadén has produced a third of the mercury consumed by humanity. The Almadén Mining Park offers us a trip to the interior of one of the oldest mines in the world. The park is completed with museums, interpretation centres and interesting displays of industrial archaeology. The Old School of Mine Foremen, created in the 18th century for the Study of Subterranean Geometry and Mineralogy. The House of the Superintendence located next to the mine allowed for greater control of it, of Baroque style only the enclosure remains. The San Rafael Miners' Hospital houses the historical archive of the Almadén Mines.

Small town near Almadén, integrated into the Valle de Alcudia region. Its most emblematic building is the Church of San Juan Bautista and Santo Domingo de Silo, which dates back to the 16th century. A few kilometers from the town, in the Sierra de la Virgen, is the Virgen del Castillo hermitage, built on the ruins of a castle of Arab origin.

This is a very well-known town not only for where it is located but for what it represented in terms of mines and mineral extraction. In the square there is a statue that shows us the mining legacy of the nucleus.

The Almadén Mining Park is the living heritage of the two thousand years of Almadén exploitation. After the closure of the mining activity in 2003, the oldest mines in the world whose activity has been maintained to this day, show their secrets. Mercury, the living silver of the Romans, is shown in the Park in all its aspects, the extraction of its mineral, cinnabar, mercury sulfide, its transformation in metallurgical furnaces, its physical and chemical properties, its uses and, of course, its eternal history. The facilities of the Mining Park, the shafts, buildings and facilities are the heart of the Spanish assets registered on the list of World Heritage Sites under the name of Mercury Heritage. Almaden and Idrija.