The Lousal Mine is part of the Iberian Pyrite Belt, one of the most important metallogenetic provinces in the world resulting from volcanic and hydrothermal activity with 350 million years. This region, about 250 km of length and 30-50 km width, extends from the Sado Valley (Portugal) to the Province of Seville (Spain). The Lousal Mine, located in the municipality of Grândola (Setúbal), explored pyrite between 1900 and 1988. After a process of social, economic, environmental and heritage rehabilitation, Lousal Mine became an open air museum where the visitors can explore science, extract knowledge and value the past while projecting the future.
In 2015 the Waldemar Gallery, the first underground gallery of the Lousal mine, opened to the public in order to provide visitors an experience through the bowels of earth. During 300 metres underground the visitors can observe geodiversity ...
The Lousal Ciência Viva Centre is set up in a building formerly associated with mining activity, currently adapted to perform functions for the dissemination of scientific and technological culture.
Originally, the power plant was responsible for supplying power to the industrial mining complex of Lousal and its population (1934-1992). After some years of inactivity, since 2001, the museum plays an important role in the context of indu ...