Resbaladero de Lunada, Historical timber slide in Soba, Spain.
The Resbaladero de Lunada is a timber slide in Soba, Cantabria, built on a stone base with a beech wood channel in a U-shape. It ran 1.7 kilometres down the slopes of the Lunada pass, and only a few vestiges of the stone base remain.
Wolfgang Mücha, an Austrian engineer, arrived at La Cavada in October 1790 and proposed a timber slide for the Lunada pass. The budget was approved on 4 July 1791, construction began on 8 August, and tests followed on 26 August. The slide supplied wood for the Royal Cannon Factory of La Cavada and Liérganes.
The structure demonstrates how people engineered solutions to move heavy materials through mountain terrain. The system was essential for supplying timber to industrial centers that shaped the region's economy.
Access to the site is via the road leading to Lunada ski station, where visitors can spot the remaining foundations along the mountainside path. The best time to visit is outside winter months when the pathways are more easily accessible.
The first trial version, built from 8 August 1791, rested directly on the ground on beech timbers laid in a scissor pattern and ran 2,112 metres, longer than the final stone-based slide. Tests began on 26 August, only eighteen days after construction started.
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