Miners' houses

Today's walk was supposed to take us to the remote abandoned mining village of La Pinouse above Valmanya. I was particularly interested as this was the place where a fierce battle took place in the Second World War between the Germans and the Resistance. This followed a raid on the local town of Prades by the maquisards who needed money. The Germans decided to make an example of the village and raze it to the ground and kill its population. A rearguard action allowed all but four of the villagers to escape. One of the Resistance was injured and subsequently tortured for three days before dying . The other three were later captured and shot. The village was burned. Later it received the Croix de Guerre for its resistance. However, we did not reach the village as forestry workers were felling trees and our path was blocked and with large trees falling across the path, it was dangerous to continue. So we walked to another mine through the woodland whose colours were magnificent. We wandered around the site looking at the remains of mine workings, wagons, incline planes and furnaces. The accommodation for the miners was very basic and each unit had only enough room for a bed, table and chair. This site produced very pure iron which has the peculiarity of not rusting. Lots of ironwork in the locality can be seen with no evidence of rust.

More photos of autumn colours and the mine can be seen here.