Quarries

Pizarras Villar del Rey s.l. was founded in 1983 by Julian Reynolds Cuellar after to acquire one of the oldest quarries of slate in Europe and possibly larger.

The quarry is located in the village of Villar del Rey (provicia of Badajoz). The quarry can be considered as the oldest in Europe, if we consider that 2,000 years ago the Romans extracted slate in Villar del Rey to be used in the construction of Emerita Augusta (now the neighboring city of Merida), just as seen in its historical monuments.

There are also evidences that these ancient quarries have been exploited, more or less organized form over the past 300 years. Slates of Villar del Rey have been used in at least the past 150 years to cover the roofs of many historic buildings in Spain, some of which remain at present its original slate.