Musée des Mines et des Carrières à Flamanville

Useful Information

Location:	18 Rue du Château, 50340 Flamanville. (49.5296913, -1.8656912)
Open:	JUL to AUG Tue-Sun 14-19. [2023]
Fee:	Adults EUR 2.50, Children (0-11) free. Groups (10+): Adults EUR 2. [2023]
Classification:	Iron Mine
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided, D=90 min.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	yes
Bibliography:
Address:	Musée des Mines et des Carrières à Flamanville, 18 Rue du Château, 50340 Flamanville, Tel: +33-233-52-52-29, Tel: +33-642-62-40-22. La Mairie, 27 rue du Château, CS 90006, 50340 Flamanville, Tel: +33-233-87-66-66. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

17th century	quarrying of granite.
1877	iron mine opened.
1962	iron mine closed.

Geology

Description

The Musée des Mines et des Carrières à Flamanville (Museum of Mines and Quarries in Flamanville) is dedicated to different mining and quarrying operation in the small village at the channel. A central exhibit is a video of a boat being loaded with wagons from the mine, reminiscent of the film "la maison sous la mer" (the house under the sea) shot in Flamanville. The underwater mine was located in Diélette. Three hundred miners, carters and blacksmiths were mining the iron ore. It was one of the most famous mines in France, probably because it was under the sea. This had a main drawback though, there was a lot of water in the mine and dewatering the mine was the main problem and made the mine unprofitable much earlier than other iron mines.

The mining started the 17th century with the quarrying of granite. The Flamanville granite was used for the needle of the Obelisk on the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville in Cherbourg, the cobblestones of Place de la Concorde in Paris, and the construction of the ports of Querqueville, Homet and Pelee Island. In the middle of the 19th century the need for granite diminished, but there was also iron ore, and so the exploitation of iron ore replaced that of granite. As the sea, near the outer jetty, two 150 m deep shafts were sunken in 1877.

Today the site is occupied by a nuclear power plant, one of the blind spots on Google Earth. France is extremely dependent on its nuclear power plants, a fact which became obvious during the 2022 energy crisis. The Flamanville nuclear power plant has an area of 120 ha, half of which was reclaimed from the sea. With two production units with a power of 1.3 GW each, EDF Flamanville produces 4% of the electricity in France, and meets 69% of the region's electricity needs.

The Mines and Quarries Museum, located in the town center of Flamanville, south of the curch. It occupies the right wing of the Le Rafio, the concert hall and arts center of Flamanville.