Preserved antracite shaft and heritage visitor centre, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural as part of the Cuenca Minera de Fabero in 2021.
Pozo Julia is a former vertical anthracite shaft at Fabero in the El Bierzo comarca of León, constructed from 1947 by Antracitas de Fabero, S.A. and operational from approximately 1950. The shaft reached 275 metres in depth across three working levels at 50, 100, and 275 metres. At the height of its activity in the second half of the 1950s, the mine employed around 3,600 workers and produced a maximum of 393,873 tonnes of anthracite in 1958.
In 1962 it became the first mine in Spain to deploy mechanised long-wall cutting with a cepillo (shearer-plough) system, pioneering industrial mechanisation in the Spanish coal industry. The shaft closed in 1991 when reserves were exhausted. After a period in UMINSA ownership the surface installations were transferred to the Ayuntamiento de Fabero in 2007 and opened as a heritage visitor site.
The Cuenca Minera de Fabero, including Pozo Julia, was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural with the category of conjunto etnológico in 2021.
Antracite extraction at Fabero has a documented history extending back to the mid-nineteenth century, but the modern era of the cuenca began in 1928 when Diego Pérez Campanario sank the first vertical shaft in the area, known as the Pozo Viejo, to a depth of 110 metres at Lillo del Bierzo. The Pozo Viejo operated as the principal shaft of Diego Pérez's enterprise through the 1930s and into the 1940s, by which time its reserves were approaching exhaustion. In 1936, following a brief production crisis, Diego Pérez reconstituted the operation under the formal corporate name Antracitas de Fabero, S.A. The company was subsequently recognised as an Empresa Modelo at national level, a designation that reflected both its scale and the welfare infrastructure it provided for its workforce.
Construction of a new and far larger shaft began in 1947. This was Pozo Julia, named after a daughter of one of the proprietors. The shaft was designed as a modern vertical extraction operation, reaching 275 metres in depth with three working levels at 50, 100, and 275 metres. The BOE declaration of 2021 describes the shaft as having been conceived as a modern campo de explotación, integrating an extensive complex of surface buildings for underground work support, coal treatment, haulage systems, and mineral despatch. Production from Pozo Julia commenced in approximately 1950. By the mid-1950s the mine had become the principal employer in the comarca, with the workforce reaching approximately 3,600 workers in the period 1955 to 1960.
In 1955, Antracitas de Fabero constructed a major residential settlement adjacent to the Pozo Viejo site: the Poblado de Diego Pérez, comprising 250 single-storey terraced housing units arranged in rows around a central green space. Workers were distributed across units sized by family composition. Following the paternalistic industrial model common to large Spanish and Asturian mining enterprises, the company operated an economato, workshops, a bakery, and other services for its workforce.
Production at Pozo Julia peaked in 1958 at 393,873 tonnes. The mine consistently produced over 100,000 tonnes annually in its main operational period. In 1962 a fundamental technical change was introduced: Pozo Julia became the first mine in Spain to deploy a mechanised long-wall system using a cepillo — a shearer-plough cutting machine operating on extended coal faces. This innovation, described as the 'sistema de arranque mediante tajos largos en frente único mecanizados con cepillo', transformed extraction efficiency but significantly reduced the workforce requirement. Workers who were displaced were redeployed to other shafts in the region. Following the introduction of the cepillo system, production stabilised at around 250,000 tonnes annually. Other major mining companies and HUNOSA sent personnel to Fabero to observe and learn from the innovation.
The antracite seams at Fabero were characterised by narrow working faces of between 70 and 80 centimetres, conditions demanding that miners enter and work horizontal positions to extract the coal. On 19 October 1984 an explosion of accumulated firedamp gas at level 17 of the Grupo Río killed eight miners. This accident revealed the presence of methane in what had been assumed to be a largely gas-free antracite mine, and prompted tighter gas-monitoring protocols across the Fabero cuenca.
By 1991 the reserves of the Pozo Julia shaft were exhausted. The mine closed that year and Antracitas de Fabero implemented a workforce regulation procedure. The wider cuenca continued in operation under restructured ownership — eventually under Unión Minera del Norte (UMINSA) — until underground extraction ended in February 2002 at the Paraje La Reguera site. Opencast extraction at the 'Gran Corta' continued until 2018.
In 2007, UMINSA transferred the surface installations of Pozo Julia to the Ayuntamiento de Fabero. The Ayuntamiento, with support from the Asociación Cuenca Minera de Fabero, developed the site as a public heritage visitor attraction. The complex remains in a high state of preservation. Accessible guided visits take visitors through the former vestuarios (changing rooms), lampistería, sala de compresores — equipped with American-engined compressors installed in the 1960s — the castillete, and a recreated underground gallery demonstrating working conditions. Audioguides, including a version for children and a sign-language guide, are provided. The BOE declaration of 2021 describes the castillete as an icónico landmark of Fabero visible across the town.
On 22 April 2021 the Junta de Castilla y León formally declared the Cuenca Minera de Fabero a Bien de Interés Cultural with the category of conjunto etnológico, marking the first time such a designation had been applied to a mining basin in Castilla y León. Pozo Julia is designated as Enclave 2 within the protected area. The declaration encompasses the Pozo Viejo, the Poblado de Diego Pérez, the sistema de cables aéreos (aerial ropeway network), and other associated infrastructure of the cuenca.