page_title: Heritage of Mercury. Almadén and Idrija
section_title: Nomination process
hierarchical_section_title: Heritage of Mercury. Almadén and Idrija / Nomination process
caption_attribution_description: Español: Carretilla de las Minas de Almadén, provincia de Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, España. Declaradas Patrimonio de la Humanidad en 2012.
context_page_description: Heritage of Mercury. Almadén and Idrija is a joint UNESCO World Heritage site in Almadén, Castile-La Mancha, Spain, and Idrija, Slovenia. The property encompasses two mercury mining sites. In Almadén mercury has been extracted since Antiquity, while in Idrija it was first found in 1490.
  The sites bear testimony to the intercontinental trade in mercury which generated important exchanges between Europe and America over the centuries. The two sites represent the two largest mercury mines in the world and were operational until recent times. Mercury played an important role in extracting gold and silver from ores, dug in American mines. In addition, both sites illustrate the various industrial, territorial, urban and social elements of a specific sociotechnical system in the mining and metal production industries.
  At the heart of the Almadén site is a Mining Park, where the public can go underground.
  There are also buildings relating to the town´s mining history, including Retamar Castle, the San Rafael Mining Hospital, and eighteenth-century dwellings which form a hexagonal bullring.
context_section_description: Idrija begun the process to inscribe the mercury heritage to the UNESCO's heritage list in 2006. Initially, the nomination was made together with Huancavelica mercury mine in Peru, in relation to the intercontinental route Camino Real. In the second stage, a nomination focused on mercury heritage in relation to silver mining, together with San Luis Potosí mine in Mexico - however, the nomination did not gather sufficient support. The third, successful stage of the nomination focused on mercury mining in relation to technological and industrial processes that influenced the economical and cultural development of the two regions.
caption: Interior of one of the Almadén's mines
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