The 2025 Association for Industrial Archaeology Spring tour is to Catalunya in Spain, from the 12th to the 18th May, and booking is now open. Catalunya tends to value most the heritage that distinguishes it from the rest of Spain, so the Romanesque and Gothic architecture, largely built while the rest of the Peninsular was under Arabic Muslim control, is treasured. Since the growth of Catalan autonomy from 1979, its industrial heritage has been also valued as a distinguishing feature from most of the rest of Spain since the 19th century.

Catalunya has developed a unique territorial museum system which builds on the dispersed and specialised nature of industrial activities in the region. There are 25 distinct, conserved, and interpreted sites, known as the Sistema del mNACTEC, the ‘national industrial museum of Catalunya’ which include many industrial sites.

The tour is based in Barcelona with 6 nights’ accommodation and 5 days of visits. Apart from the train ride up to the Asland cement factory (see below), we shall see sites representing shipbuilding, railways, water pumping, textile production, coal mining and much more.

The tour is all-inclusive of visits and guiding, transport in Spain, lunches (except Tuesday), dinners, bed & breakfast. Non-AIA members are most welcome but paid-up members of the AIA at the time of the tour enjoy a £30 discount per booking, one of the many benefits of becoming a member. With this discount and if you take advantage of the new online-only AIA membership, you can actually save money by joining  the AIA by clicking on this link

To book the industrial heritage rtour follow this link: Spring Tour page of the AIA website.