Musée des Gueules Rouges, Mining museum in Tourves, France.
The Musée des Gueules Rouges is a mining museum in Tourves dedicated to bauxite extraction and displays original tools, photographs, and interactive exhibits about how minerals were removed from the ground. Visitors walk through a reconstructed mine gallery to experience what the work environment was like.
Bauxite mining shaped the Var region from 1873 until 1990 and was central to aluminum production across Europe. Tourves became a major center for this industry and employed generations of local workers.
Mining shaped how people lived and worked in this region for generations. The stories here show how entire communities depended on this industry for their daily lives.
The museum sits between Marseille and Nice, making it accessible for visitors traveling through Provence. The reconstructed mine stays much cooler than the surface, so bringing a light jacket is helpful.
The museum's name refers to the red faces of miners stained by bauxite dust, a mark that made them recognizable anywhere in the region. This distinctive look became part of their identity and daily reality.
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