Llano del Beal (also known as El Llano del Beal or El Llano) is a town in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of Cartagena in the

autonomous community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

of the

Region of Murcia The Region of Murcia (, ; ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain located in the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast. The region is in area and had a popul ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Physical geography

Location

Located to the east of the municipality of Cartagena, a city 14 kilometers away. Part of the

Sierra Minera de Cartagena-La Unión Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" or "mountain chain" and "saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following: Places Mountains and mountain ranges * Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico * Sierra de las Nieves ...

extends through this town. Through El Llano del Beal and San Ginés de la Jara passes the rambla of El Beal, which flows north of the Arenal Beach in Los Nietos near the

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

of Lo Poyo, which carries spills of

heavy metals upright=1.2, Crystals of lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals is a controversial and ambiguous term for metallic elements with relatively h ...

from the old mining activity. Castillete 2

History

The village was born in the last years of the 19th century to house workers who worked in the mines of

galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crysta ...

and other metals. At the foot of the mining mountain range, it is located on a plain called El Llano. Its first inhabitants were mostly mine workers. They came from the nearby countryside and also from the

province of Almería Almería (, also ; ) is a province of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It was named after the Arab ruler of Taifa, Banu Al-Miri. It is bordered by the provinces of Granada, Murcia, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is the homony ...

. Historically the basis of its economic activity was mining, which caused a strong labor conflict mainly due to the harsh working conditions, such as the strike of 1898 and the events of Descargador in 1916. As a witness of its working class past, the ''Casa del Pueblo'' was inaugurated in 1916 by the ''Sociedad Nueva España'', which later became part of the UGT union. At the end of the

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

and the establishment of Franco's dictatorship, the building was requisitioned, its name was changed to ''Hogar del Productor'' and after the death of the

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute Power (social and political), power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a polity. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to r ...

, it was returned to the union. There is also a

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

style building, the Casino, which shows the past economic splendor. Since 1927 the mining activity suffered a strong crisis that produced a massive exodus of the population caused by the decline of mining activity and when in 1957 began the open pit mining of the ''

Sociedad Minera y Metalúrgica de Peñarroya ''Sociedad Minera y Metalúrgica de Peñarroya'' (in French language, French: ''Société minière et métallurgique de Peñarroya''), usually abbreviated as SMMP, was a France, French-owned multinational mining company that operated between 1881 ...

'' with its aggressive activity caused the reaction of the inhabitants by endangering their homes. From 1988 onwards, the company Portmán Golf S.A. became the owner, and the confrontations became so intense that the activity was put to an end. The company offered the construction of a new village but the neighbors stood guard night and day in shifts so that the mining activity did not approach the village and for this they built a hut that, remodeled, remains as a reminder of their struggle. Years after the end of the mining activity, heavy metal contamination was produced, affecting the health of their neighbors. Balsa de Yenny amenazando al Llano del Beal - panoramio

Balsa de Yenny amenazando al Llano del Beal - panoramio

Human geography

Territorial organization

The municipal district of Cartagena is divided into collective entities of population there called '' diputaciones''. Llano del Beal belongs to the deputation of El Beal and is a

singular population entity From a statistical point of view, in Spain, a singular population entity (''in Spanish:'' ''entidad singular de población'') is defined as "any inhabited area within a municipality, inhabited or exceptionally uninhabited, clearly differentiated w ...

or ''

pedanía This article lists the districts of Murcia in Spain. Murcia has 54 districts, which are named ''pedanías''. La Albatalía This district is placed in the northwestern quarter of Murcia and has a surface of 1.92 km2. It is adjacent to the ...

'' of the municipality.

Demographics

The total population is 1,337 inhabitants in 2021. The evolution of the population maintains a regressive tendency.

Economy

Although the location has a mining origin, at present this sector is inactive and the economy is based on the services of the tourist sector, construction and industry, with agriculture being insignificant.

Facilities and services

* OMITA (Municipal Office of information and administrative procedures of the City Council of Cartagena). * Social center. * Public school San Ginés de la Jara (building also in El Estrecho de San Ginés). * Medical office * Pharmacy * ''

Casa del pueblo In Spain, a Casa del Pueblo () refers to a typical local branch office of both the PSOE and the Unión General de Trabajadores. Historically, the term has been used to describe clearing houses of information for Spanish employees and workers. A ...

''. * Deportiva Minera soccer club (shared with El Estrecho de San Ginés and El Beal) based in the Angel Celdran Stadium. * Cemetery, located near the monastery of San Ginés de la Jara.

Transport and communications

Roads

The town is connected by the RM-F43 with the nearby town of El Estrecho de San Ginés (from which it is 600 meters away and from which it is separated by the railway), the

Mar Menor Mar Menor (, "minor/smaller sea") is a coastal saltwater lagoon in the Iberian Peninsula located south-east of the Autonomous Community of Murcia, Spain, near Cartagena. Its name is the opposite of the Mediterranean, which is the (greater/lar ...

and with the

Rincón de San Ginés Rincón de San Ginés is a district of the Spanish municipality Cartagena and is located in the south-east end. The territory is adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea in its south and east and is adjacent to a coastal salty lagoon named Mar Menor in i ...

; by the same road in the opposite direction it communicates with La Unión and Cartagena; and by another road, the RM-F42, it passes through El Beal and connects with the RM-12 highway in the vicinity of

El Algar El Algar is a district of the Spanish municipality Cartagena. It is located in the east of Cartagena and has an area of 26.659 km2. It shares borders with Lentiscar at its north, San Félix at its east, La Unión municipality at its south east, E ...

Railroad

Narrow-gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter cur ...

of the Cartagena-Los Nietos Line operated by

Renfe Cercanías AM Renfe Cercanías AM, formerly known as Renfe Feve, is a division of state-owned Spanish railway company Renfe Operadora. It operates most of Spain's of metre-gauge railway. This division of Renfe was previously a stand-alone company named F ...

with a

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

Bus

The road passenger service of the municipality is included within the Movibus brand, an interurban public transport system of the Region of Murcia (Spain), which includes bus services owned by the autonomous region. The lines of the concession MUR-004 "Metropolitana Cartagena-Mar Menor" are operated by ALSA (TUCARSA).

Festivities

The popular festivities are from August 31 to September 9.

Influence

There is a 2001 documentary film directed by Miguel Martí and titled ''Portmán, a la sombra de Roberto'' (Portmán, in the shadow of Roberto), which recalls in interviews and images the neighbors' struggle for the survival of the town against the Portmán Golf company that extracted ore a few meters from the town.

Hiking routes

It passes by the proximities of the population the footpath of small route PR MU 3.

References

External links

Llano del Beal in the website verpueblos.com
(in Spanish).
Fundación Sierra Minera website
(in Spanish).
Rogelio Mouzo Pagán blog
(in Spanish).

(in Spanish).
History of Llano del Beal and La Cabaña in Youtube
(in Spanish). {{coord, 37, 37, 28, N, 0, 50, 09, W, display=title, region:ES_type:city Populated places in the Region of Murcia Cartagena, Spain