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Skinning the boar. La Hermida, February 1989.LA HERMIDA
Between 26 October and 28 March – or between 29 October and 12 February – it all depends on which location one chooses when making the observations, La Hermida, halfway up the gorges of the Deva from Panes to Potes, has no direct sunlight. The village was once a health spa, with two springs, one of 25 and the other of 61 degrees Celsius, and both with high concentrations of chlorine and sodium. The bath room at the spa was built in 1800, while the rest of the establishment dates from the 1880s. A century later the complex lay in ruins.
As for the road through the gorges, running south from Potes and Tama to Panes, this was built between 1850 and 1870, thus providing Liébana with an all-weather, all-season exit. One of the main reasons for its construction was to facilitate the transport of calamine and hornblende from mines high up in the Ándara massif of the Picos de Europa. Interest in the mineral wealth of the Picos began in the mid-nineteenth century as a result of investigations by the geologist and mountaineer Gustav Schulz from Bayern. Above La Hermida and Beges, around 50 km of rough trackways were built to access the various mines, and the ores were first subjected to calcining in ovens up at El Dobrillo (altitude 1,096 m) before being transported by mule through the gorges to the Puente de Estragüeña, whence they were rafted down to Unquera and Bustio. Most of the output was exported to BElgium. Mining was only possible during the summer months, since the adits, at the Collado de la Aldea, were at an altitude of 1,800 m. Although commercial exploitation ceased in 1929 the workings are still occasionally inspected to ensure that should market conditions one day become favourable again, they can be reopened.
