Parco Minerario Naturalistico di Gavorrano
The Parco Minerario Naturalistico di Gavorrano is the most comprehensive mine documentation park within the "Ore Hills" National Park ( Colline Metallifere ) in southern Tuscany, which has existed since 2002 ( Parco Tecnologico ed archeologico delle Colline Metallifere ). It extends to approx. 1000 hectares over the hills south of the core town ( capoluogo ) of the municipality of Gavorrano .
location
The park includes the Monte Calvo, which at 468 m is the highest point in the municipality, as well as the neighboring hills.
The site includes:
- The pyrite mine of the Montecatini company, which was shut down in 1984 and was one of the largest of its kind in Europe (partly made accessible as a show mine with guided tour),
- two shafts with winding towers (freely accessible),
- a limestone quarry (the so-called rock park ), freely accessible,
- a second mine in the district ( frazione ) Ravi , once operated by the company Carlo Marchi & Co., over 150 km of tunnel length connected to the mine of Gavorrano, as well
- marked hiking trails.
history
In 1991 the municipality of Gavorrano started the development phase of the project to document the past of Gavorrano as a core region of Italian mining for posterity. Part of the abandoned tunnels was restored under the direction of Professor Alberto Magnaghi from the University of Florence.
In 1999 the rock park was completed and some tunnels of the neighboring Ravi mine were made accessible.
By decree of the Italian Ministry of the Environment dated February 28, 2002, the project was incorporated into the overall concept of the Parco Tecnologico ed archeologico delle Colline Metallifere National Park .
The mine park opened on July 19, 2003.
The facilities
Show mine
The tour of the mining museum begins with a model of the facility, which is used to explain the history of the pyrite mine, which was founded in 1898 and in which around 27 million tons of the rock were extracted before it was closed. 30% of the pyrite obtained was used for the production of sulfuric acid in Scarlino .
The complete tunnel system comprises 11 levels with a total difference in height of 568 m.
The visitors are led into the tunnel under the sound of the siren and experience a reconstructed “work shift” on a tour of around 200 m. Work was carried out around the clock in 3 shifts of 8 hours each with 300 men:
Demonstrated 7 work steps:
- Entrance into the mine with "cages"
- Test drilling; Exhibition of scalpels for hard and soft rocks
- Explanation of mining techniques : access to the seam , digging tunnels, mining the rock
- Filling exhausted tunnels with limestone extracted from the neighboring quarry
- Blasting the rock: The explosives were placed in blast holes previously drilled for this purpose. The first pneumatic hammers were used in the factory in the 1920s (models are on display). Before this work had to be done by hand.
- Support work: side walls and ceiling were wood supported to prevent cave-ins. Nevertheless, there were always serious accidents in the mine.
- Clearing the rock with shovel loaders on a cart . Various devices that were in use in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s will be demonstrated.
At the end of the tour, a documentary will be shown.
Shafts / winding towers
- Roma shaft : This first shaft, built in 1914 (entrance on the surface at 200 m), used to extract all of the pyrite, which had often covered a distance of 10 km underground. In 1915 it was driven down to a height of 90 m. The headframe made of vertical iron girders and crossbeams was in operation until the mid-1970s. The conspicuous construction, visible directly on Strada Provinciale No. 82 from the district of Bagno di Gavorrano to the core town, has become a landmark ( segno ) for the self-image of the park .
- In 1938, a second underground shaft was built at a height of 90 m ( Impero shaft ) in order to access even deeper rock layers in the mine. The pyrite extracted up to this point then reached the Roma shaft base via a connecting tunnel, from which it was extracted to the surface. After 1937 the shaft was driven up bit by bit until it reached the surface at 240 m (today's shaft entrance). Next to the shaft entrance are the changing rooms ( chews ) for the miners (built in 1962).
Rock park
In the limestone quarry opposite the mine entrance, the filler material was extracted that had to be placed in the exploited pyrite tunnels in order to prevent the excavated rock from collapsing. With the closure of the mine, the quarry was also no longer needed and abandoned.
Today this complex has been given a new aesthetic function for tourism. Sculptures and installations by contemporary artists ( Paolo Gobec , Christian Streng , Leonardo Cambri ) line the path to the rock stage in the form of a Greek theater (built in 2003) with 600 seats on the steps and a further 800 standing room. Theater performances, musical performances, dance events, concerts and art exhibitions take place here in summer.
The single-nave oratory of San Rocco , presumably built at the end of the 18th century, is dedicated to Saint Roch of Montpellier , saint of the plague , who is also the patron saint of the miners. The little church was a prayer room for the miners' families. Traditionally, until 1956 (and has been taking place again since 2004) for the patronage festival (August 16), a procession from the church of San Giuliano in the center of town to this point took place. The original fresco has been lost, apart from a small remnant behind the altar. After the restoration in 1999–2000, the wall paintings were redesigned by Alain Cancilleri .
Hiking trails
Hiking trails
- to the oldest tunnels that were built by Garibaldi's colleague Francesco Alberti at the end of the 19th century,
- to the old spring ( fonte vecchia , dried up in the meantime),
- around Monte Calvo,
- after Ravi
- to the Pozzuoli estate with large cork oaks
lead through intact nature with dry meadows and characteristic macchia vegetation. With a little luck, hikers can spot wild boar , porcupine , badger , wildcat and stone marten . As its name suggests, the self-image of the park lies in a harmonious symbiosis of mining museum and nature park. Because it is precisely those areas that have been abandoned by humans since the 1980s and left to their own devices for more than 20 years that nature has "recaptured" ( ricuperato ).
literature
Parco Minerario Naturalistico di Gavorrano . ed. by Alessandra Casini, Roccastrada 2005