Primitive agriculture with no surpluses, a lack of coal, or religious beliefs inimical to literacy and the work ethic: for whatever reason only three regions in southern Europe responded to the challenge presented by the British and other northern European industrial revolutions in the 19th century.

This September tour sets out to discover two of them. Starting out from Gijón (Asturias) with subsequent nights in a small village, Santander (Cantabria) and Bilbao (Basque Country), you’ll get to know the industrial heritage of the land where the Cantabrian range slopes down to the Bay of Biscay. The itinerary for this part includes major mining and railway museums, ironworks and other attractions, as well as the seaside palaces and villages commissioned by wealthy entrepreneurs from Gaudí and other Catalan architects.

Then, following an evening in Logroño (La Rioja) devoted to understanding the industrial base of its wine industry and getting to know its unrivalled tapas bars, we’ll head east on the new high-speed AVE train.

Barcelona is one of only a handful of industrial cities that were also powerful medieval centres, and it still retains important productive sites like the great 14th century shipyards. Steam power was smuggled here from Britain in 1833, and industrialisation followed a unique path based on water power. The final days of this tour will investigate some of the hundred or so industrial settlements that were the backbone of Catalonia’s industrial economy, including the Scottish colony built by Coats of Glasgow.

From Barcelona you can fly home to numerous British airports, or we can suggest where you might go to explore more of Spain or southern France.

So tick the boxes: railways, mines, foundries and steelworks, textile colonies, industrial architecture in stone and iron, the houses of the Midases and the masses, autumn sunshine and superb food and wine.

Error: the communication with Picasa Web Albums didn't go as expected. Here's what Picasa Web Albums said:

404. That’s an error.

The requested URL /data/feed/api/user/111257672258796628424/album/FollowthebaldieIndustryArtNouveau?kind=photo&authkey=Gv1sRgCLzF_8Ly54neHw was not found on this server. That’s all we know.

1. Announcing a 9-day tour of northern Spain’s industrial heritage in September 2012 says:

   March 9 2012 at 23:43

   [...] Mr Douet and Ms Criado on this expedition will have different stories, but for Mr Baldie this all started at primary school when the [...]

2. nick says:

   August 16 2012 at 23:45

   Hi Trevor, looking foward to reading this industrial guide when you start posting. Sounds fascianting. Best Nick

3. Mr Baldie says:

   August 17 2012 at 17:40

   Unfortunately it's going to be a paid-for thing - small edition covering post-restoration stuff for the September tour, then at some point thereafter a book of some nature, into which you will obviously be invited to peer.