In 1959, an eighty-metre-high blast furnace rose from the ground in Sestao, a municipality about five kilometres from the Spanish port city of Bilbao.
Iron ore has been mined on the banks of the Nervión River since the 15th century. The soil there is veined with galleries from the various iron ore mines, including San Luis.
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On the occasion of International Art Nouveau Day, celebrated each year on June 10, a look at how this ornate architectural movement found its way into the most unlikely of places like coal mines, power stations, and railway yards and the long, sometimes heartbreaking battles to save what remains.
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