Surviving iron headframe over the Poço Vipasca shaft, a landmark feature of the Parque Mineiro de Aljustrel heritage park in the Alentejo.
The Malacate Vipasca is the iron winding headframe standing over the Poço Vipasca shaft at the Minas de Aljustrel complex, situated within the Iberian Pyrite Belt in the Baixo Alentejo. The shaft was sunk in the late nineteenth century and was originally named Poço Eyben, after the first Belgian administrator of the mines following the establishment of the Société Anonyme Belge des Mines d'Aljustrel in 1898. In the 1960s the Algares mining area was extensively remodelled and connected underground to the Mina do Moinho, at which point the shaft was renamed Vipasca — evoking the Roman settlement that had occupied this ground in antiquity — as a symbol of a renewed mine.
The iron headframe, known throughout the Iberian Pyrite Belt by the Spanish-derived term malacate, provided vertical access for personnel and ore between the surface and the underground galleries. By the time the Parque Mineiro de Aljustrel opened in December 2023, the internal wooden shaft lining used for personnel transport had deteriorated beyond safe use, and visitor access to the Galeria dos Algares at thirty metres depth is now provided by a modern lift installed nearby. A restored locomotive has been placed beside the headframe as part of the heritage presentation.
The Poço Vipasca shaft sits within the Minas de Aljustrel complex, one of Portugal's most ancient and continuously exploited mining districts, lying on the Iberian Pyrite Belt — a zone of massive sulphide deposits stretching from the Alentejo into Andalucía. Mining at Aljustrel is documented from the Chalcolithic period in the third millennium BC, and the Roman settlement of Vipasca, established at the end of the first century BC near the Algares orebody, gave the renamed shaft its modern designation. The Romans mined intensively here until the fourth century AD, producing copper, silver, and pyrite, and leaving substantial slag deposits estimated at around 450,000 tonnes. Exploitation declined after the Roman withdrawal and remained intermittent through the medieval period.
The modern industrial phase began at Aljustrel in 1848 with the award of the first documented concession, followed by a succession of operators: the short-lived Lusitanian Mining Company, then the Companhia de Mineração Transtagana, which operated for roughly fifteen years from the mid-nineteenth century and introduced rail transport and mineral processing before going bankrupt. The concession then passed to the banking house Fonseca, Santos & Vianna. In 1898 this firm, in partnership with Belgian and Portuguese investors, formed the Société Anonyme Belge des Mines d'Aljustrel in Antwerp and secured the mining concession on 26 May 1898. Under this Belgian company the mines were substantially developed: worker housing, schools, and hospitals were constructed in the surrounding mining quarters.
The Poço Vipasca shaft was sunk in the late nineteenth century, under the first years of Belgian administration, and named Poço Eyben after the inaugural Belgian manager of the complex. The term malacate — a Spanish-derived word specific to the winding headframes of the Iberian Pyrite Belt — designates the tower structure erected above each shaft to carry the sheave wheels and hoist cables for the cage used to transport miners, ore waggons, and materials underground. The earliest malacates at Aljustrel, built around the mid-nineteenth century, were timber-framed structures powered by mule teams; later wooden structures were driven by steam engines and subsequently by lean-gas motors. The Malacate Vipasca, built in iron, represents a later generation of these structures powered by electric motors.
In the 1960s the Algares mining area underwent major restructuring. The existing workings were connected underground to the Mina do Moinho, forming an integrated operational unit, and the shaft designation was changed from Eyben to Vipasca — deliberately recalling the ancient Roman name for Aljustrel — to signal what was in effect a new mine identity. The concession continued under the Société Anonyme Belge des Mines d'Aljustrel and its successors until June 1973, when it transferred to Pirites Alentejanas, SARL. Following the democratic transition, the Portuguese state nationalised a controlling stake in 1975, with a residual Belgian interest retained. Mining activity was suspended in 1993 for technical and economic reasons and resumed between 2006 and 2008, before being halted again in November 2008 due to the global financial crisis.
Following the definitive end of active extraction in the Algares sector, environmental remediation works were carried out on the decommissioned areas by the Empresa de Desenvolvimento Mineiro, with total investment of more than ten million euros across the heritage zones. The Câmara Municipal de Aljustrel undertook preparatory heritage works around the Malacate Vipasca from at least 2017, financed in part through Portugal 2020 funding. A programme of accessibility improvements was constructed around the shaft head, and the Galeria dos Algares — the level-30 gallery lying thirty metres below the surface — was prepared for guided tourist visits. Because the original internal wooden structure of the shaft had deteriorated completely, a modern industrial lift was installed nearby to provide safe vertical access.
The Parque Mineiro de Aljustrel opened officially on 4 December 2023, the feast of Santa Bárbara, patron of miners. The Malacate Vipasca functions as a visible landmark on the approach to the park, and the access gallery bears its name. A restored locomotive, retrieved from storage and conserved as part of the Trilhos da Memória programme, was placed beside the headframe. The iron malacate frame continues to stand above the sealed shaft, serving as one of the most emblematic industrial monuments of the Aljustrel mining landscape.