Contextualization and Heritage Enhancement of the Historical Quarries of the Colored Limestones of Espejón (Soria, Spain)

Abstract

The Jurassic colored limestones (yellow-purple) exploited in Espejón (Soria) have been a building material of recognized prestige and great appreciation through time. In particular, two main periods in its exploitation and use are recognized: Roman times − 1st to 5th century AD- (attested, for example, in the cities of Segobriga, Clunia, Complutum, and in villae of Carranque or La Olmeda) and the Renaissance-Baroque period (15th – 18th centuries) (in civil and religious buildings, such as the palace of the Counts of Miranda in Peñaranda de Duero, the Cathedral of Toledo, the monastery of the Descalzas Reales or in the Basilica of the Monasterio de El Escorial). However, from the 18th century and especially in the 19th century, the exploitation of these colored limestones declined, and the quarries became abandoned and forgotten in the 20th century. The objective of this work is to locate and compile the main preserved quarry fronts, analyzing the exploitation system and the associated quarry landscape, contextualizing them in the geological and historical-cultural heritages. In general terms, the yellow and purple limestones of Espejón (Jurassic-Dogger) were exploited in stratified banks with moderate-high dips, using the bar-lever system to detach the blocks, their sliding down the slope and a first block squaring in places close to the fronts. Of these original cultural landscapes, in the best of cases, only a few fronts with scars from block removal, extraction routes and a few abandoned blocks are barely preserved. Waste dumps are the greatest exponent that reflects the intense extractive activity that these quarries accumulated over time.