Jurassic Museum of Asturias
The Museum of Jurassic, the great paleontological center of Asturias, located in an exceptional setting on the beach of La Griega, is a spectacular building with a striking shaped mold footstep.
It stands on high ground from which we discover magnificent views of the eastern coast of the region. It becomes an omnipresent viewpoint of the Jurassic landscape there’s at its feet and that is being cataloged and archived. So the first merit of the museum is found from this position, outside, watching the sea panorama.
Its unique architecture in the shape of footstep grants his second merit and opens many more expectations. Once inside we find that the interior is equally spectacular, with wide and opened spaces containing an important era in the life of the planet earth: the Mesozoic, including the Jurassic period when dinosaurs lived. We walk through its elevated walkways and we become captivated by the replicas (twenty) that fill the space. The central scene depicts a couple of tyrannosaurs copulating. They are over 12 meters high, and if they had meat they would exceed 10 tons.
Cider Museum
Inaugurated by Prince Philip in 1996, the Cider Museum aims to show the rich tradition, present and future of the Asturian drink par excellence, the cider, in the whole dimension of its meaning: historical, cultural, economic, social and playful.
Through a display system it is intended to transmit all the information regarding production, consumption and history of cider. The visitor, at first is illustrated on the raw material used in the preparation of cider: the apple, to follow in a second section, the necessary work to obtain the juice.
The next step through the Museum is to check the different environments of cider: the “llagar” or cellar, the “chigre” or bar, traditional games and folklore.
Small museum but very interesting and well exposed so that children do not get bored.
The Museum of Mining and Industry
It is located in El Entrego, a town located in San Martín del Rey Aurelio, one of the Asturian councils with the largest mining tradition. It is one of the essential museums to know the history of Asturias.
This cultural enclave is a tribute to the main “engine” of the Asturian development. With coal the manufacture of iron and steel, the arms industry, power plants, zinc factories zinc,arrived in Asturias, without forgetting that coal endowed Asturias an extensive network of railways and opened sea and mountain ports that had been remaining Asturias virtually isolated from the rest of Spain.
The main building is formed by a large central cylindrical body which highlights the derrick tower, visible from both outside and inside and that by using a lift connects the Museum with the mine. Models in actual size and scale “give life” to the period of the sixteenth century to the eighteenth.
With real tools, you can discover the most significant aspects of starting and coal mining, internal transport, etc. You reach the mine by hydraulic lift (known in the cage in mining jargon), located in the headframe. The visit to the mine is done in the company of a monitor that tells visitors all shoring systems, machines, ventilation, etc. The visit will get you impressed.