Former Dolomite Factory Museum

In an area of great landscape beauty and natural diversity, visitors will find the remnant of what was the social and economic heart of the Carranza Valley: the Former Dolomite Factory Museum.  The emphasis has been on recovering this natural heritage in order to understand the history of a traditionally mining area instead of letting it fading into oblivion in order for the Armañón Natural Park to be in the limelight.  During the heyday of Basque industry in the 20th century, the Carranza district of Ambasaguas was the centrepiece of the area, thanks to the factory that operated the Peña Ranero dolomite quarry (Armañón Park).  That material was transported from the quarry to the factory, using an overhead trolley conveyor along 2.9 kilometres and which carried up to 90 pails per hour. The striking Pozalagua Caves were actually unearthed during one of the quarry operations. The uniqueness of the new discovery was such that the quarrying activity had to stop in the area to preserve the caves, until the factory closed in 1990 after operating for over 40 years.