A town built on mercury needed a hospital, and Almadén had one dedicated to the men who paid the price. The San Rafael Royal Hospital for Miners was established in the eighteenth century to treat the workers of the royal mines, a population that suffered from silicosis and, above all, from mercury poisoning. The symptoms were grim: trembling hands, loose teeth, mental disturbance and early death. In the Spanish of the time the condition was known as mal de azogue, azogue being the old word for quicksilver. The hospital offered a place of care at a time when few mining towns offered anything.
Almadén's mining heritage is now one of the town's main attractions, and the area around the hospital is part of the World Heritage listing shared with the Slovenian town of Idrija. The buildings, solid and plain in the style of royal institutions, belong to a cluster of historic structures that include the old gaol, the mining school and the mine itself, which closed as a working operation in the early 2000s. A visitor can walk down to the old workings on a guided tour, and the museum explains how the ore was roasted, how the mercury vapour was condensed and how the finished metal was poured into iron flasks to be sent to the ports.
It is a part of Spain that few people ride. The roads around Almadén cross the dry hills and valleys of the southern Meseta, with slopes of oak and cork and wide views toward the Sierra Morena. The corners are lazy rather than demanding, and the surface is generally reasonable, with occasional rough patches. Summer is very hot, and the best seasons are spring and autumn. In winter, frost and thin ice can catch you out on shaded bends. The hills also host a surprising amount of wildlife, including deer, wild boar and, in the right places, the elusive Iberian lynx and imperial eagle in the protected areas to the south-west.
Services are limited, so use Almadén for fuel, food and rest. The town has a few small hotels and bars serving hearty food, such as game stews and migas. The smell of the area is dry grass, resin and, strangely, a faint metallic dust near the old workings. A quiet half hour in front of the old hospital, thinking about the people who worked underground, is a good way to appreciate the cost of the silver that once financed an empire.