Casa 21

In 1873 a group from Great Britain bought the Riotinto ore deposits from the Spanish government and created a mining company called Rio Tinto Company Limited.

This resulted in the creation of an urban nucleus, Minas de Riotinto, that was linked to the mining activity and during the 19th and 20th centuries underwent profound changes before becoming one of the most important towns in the province of Huelva.

The British directors of Rio Tinto Company Ltd who settled in the town created their own neighbourhood called Bellavista, clinging to their own traditions and ways of life, distancing themselves from the native people.

Bellavista had a particular lifestyle that followed English aesthetics, architecture and customs like the tea time ritual and leisure involving sports and games of tennis, polo, cricket and football hitherto unknown in Spain.

At the heart of this British "island" you will find House 21 built in 1885 for a high-ranking engineer, which still preserves all the details, furniture and Victorian style furnishings and it is open to the public together with the chapel in the same neighbourhood.

A visit to House 21 and the contents on display will provide a broader vision of the footprint left by the British presence in Bellavista, because the house has a surface area of 540 square metres and is has three storeys (ground floor, first and second floor). On all three floors you will find restored objects from their way of life and the house, photographs, texts about some of the celebrations and regarding the practice of sports showing what social life was like for the British engineers and their families.