The ruins of La Naval of Sestao, the cradle of three battleships of the Spanish Navy

@ElentirENG ES 2·15·2023 · 23:52 0

For more than a century, one of the most important naval industries in Spain was located in Sestao (Vizcaya): the "La Naval" shipyards.

Fadricas: touring the old ammunition depots of the Spanish Navy in San Fernando
The old amphibian port of the Spanish Navy in El Carmolí, base of the VCA-36 hovercraft

Initially known as Sociedad Astilleros del Nervión, this company was founded in 1888 with the initial objective of building three battleships for the Spanish Navy, those of the "Infanta María Teresa" class: the "Infanta María Teresa" launched in 1890, and the "Vizcaya" and the "Almirante Oquendo", launched in 1891. The three were sunk in the naval battle of Santiago de Cuba on July 3, 1898. The shipyards were located together with Altos Hornos de Vizcaya, which for many years was the largest company in Spain, until its dissolution in 1996.

In 1908 the Sestao shipyards became part of the Spanish Shipbuilding Society (SECN), a company whose priority was the construction of ships for the Spanish Navy, although these were built in their shipyards in Cartagena and Ferrol, so that La Naval de Sestao specialized in the construction of civilian ships, building more than 200 (one of the most famous was the transatlantic "Alfonso XIII", launched in 1920 ) until the bankruptcy of the company in 2017. The staff of La Naval was taken over by Navantia, while the company's land was sold to VGP, which is proceeding with its demolition, in order to build a business park

Before that demolition, two urban explorers had the opportunity to sneak into those ruins. A few weeks ago they published their visit to La Naval on the channel Okos from Youtube, as usual with great image quality (the video is in Spanish but has English subtitles, you can activate them in the bottom bar of the player):

You can see here some screenshots that show only a small part of the interesting things that appear in this video. Here we see a shunting steam locomotive, preserved in magnificent condition.

The huge Dry Dock No. 1, 143 meters long, built to accommodate the battleships of the "Infanta María Teresa" class.

The interior of one of the old La Naval stork cranes. In the new industrial park there will only be two souvenirs left, the demolition plan included tearing down all the others.

The interior of one of the newest cranes. The shipyard had 39 cranes (if my data is not incorrect).