Closed Asturian coal shaft at La Güeria de Carrocera, now abandoned after a post-mining enterprise failed, retaining its modernist combined services building and headframe.
Pozu Venturo was the last vertical coal shaft sunk in the Valle del Nalón, profundised by the Sociedad Metalúrgica Duro Felguera in the valley of La Güeria de Carrocera in the concejo of San Martín del Rey Aurelio from January 1954 and entering service in 1958. The area had previously been worked by mountain mining since the nineteenth century through the Mina Ventura, first registered in 1864. Duro Felguera designed the shaft as its most technologically refined installation, rationalising space and the movements of personnel and materials.
The engineer Fernández Castañón oversaw the design. The shaft reached 232 metres in depth with a diameter of 5 metres across four working levels. Its principal surface structure is a multi-function building combining washhouse, offices, and winding engine room in a single composition designed under modernist movement principles, notable for its horizontality and functionalism.
A headframe of 25 metres to the pulley axis stands beside it. The shaft was integrated into Hunosa in 1967 and served as an auxiliary of the Pozo Sotón. A fire in 1989 forced closure on 15 July 1990.
In 2005 the buildings were rehabilitated for a digital cartography enterprise, Venturo XXI, which declared bankruptcy in 2010 after receiving over five million euros in public subsidies. The site has stood abandoned since.
Coal had been worked in the valley of La Güeria de Carrocera within the concejo of San Martín del Rey Aurelio since the nineteenth century, through mountain mining operations. The mountain mine known as the Mina Ventura was first denounced in 1864 by Agustín Menéndez. Mountain mine exploitation of the Ventura seams continued as the primary activity of the area until the mid-twentieth century, when the depletion of reserves accessible by horizontal gallery drove the investment in a new vertical shaft.
The Sociedad Metalúrgica Duro Felguera began the profundisation of the vertical shaft in January 1954. Sinking was completed approximately two years later. The shaft entered productive service in 1958, making it the last vertical shaft to be profundised in the entire Valle del Nalón. Duro Felguera brought to this, its last colliery, the accumulated experience of decades of mining construction, producing a design that was considered at the time one of the most technologically rational shafts in Asturias. The installation was planned by the engineer Fernández Castañón. The shaft reached 232 metres in depth with a diameter of 5 metres and four working levels.
The most distinctive feature of the Pozu Venturo's surface complex is its principal building, which concentrates the functions of washhouse, offices, and winding engine room into a single horizontal structure built under the principles of the modernist movement. This integration of multiple functions into one building was the product of Duro Felguera's systematic rationalisation of space and worker movement. The building is noted for its horizontality and functionalism and occupies a prominent position in the architecture of the mining movement moderne in Asturias. Adjacent to it stands the headframe, 25 metres in height to the pulley axis, which is sheltered by a loading bay structure. Other installations from the period preceding the shaft, associated with the earlier mountain mining, are also present near the surface complex.
In 1967 the shaft was integrated into Hunosa along with the other Duro Felguera mining assets, and was operated as part of the Unidad Sotón, serving as an auxiliary of the Pozo Sotón. The combined Sotón-Venturo unit extracted approximately half a million gross tonnes per year and maintained an average combined workforce of around 1,500 workers, working underground seams that were also connected via galleries to other shafts in the Nalón valley.
In 1989 a serious fire broke out inside the shaft, affecting several of its seams. As a result of the fire, the shaft was closed on 15 July 1990. Following closure the site stood idle for a period.
In 2005 the installations were rehabilitated to accommodate Venturo XXI, a company dedicated to digital cartography, in what was presented as an emblematic example of the post-mining economic reconversion of the Asturian mining valleys. The enterprise received more than five million euros in public subsidies over five years. In 2010, however, Venturo XXI declared bankruptcy and closed. The site has been abandoned since, and has been subject to progressive deterioration.