Sulfur mine Floristella and Grottacalda
The place is entered in the IWB register of the Sicily Region (The Historical Places of Work) - Sector "" Archaeologized "places of extraction, collection, production" - "Archaeologized Geosites"
Description
Il Floristella-Grottacalda mining park is a Sicilian mining park, which extends over a large area located on the confluence of the highways that connect Enna, Piazza Armerina, Valguarnera Caropepe and Aidone. It is one of the most important examples of industrial archeology in the South and is managed by the park institution of the same name, established by law of the Sicilian Region in 1991[1]. The entire 400-hectare area is subject to environmental protection restrictions.
The big mines of sulfur by Floristella e Hot Cave, together with the other smaller ones of the the province of Enna, starting from the end of eighteenth century have been a source of significant economic wealth European, even if often at the price of inhumane exploitation of the workers. The mine in fact, although still characterized by a singular beauty, recalls that the history of the minatori it is the story of men who have faced inhuman hardships and unimaginable humiliations for centuries, and that everything is part of Sicilian history.
Until the first half of thenineteenth century the mining activity was based on the hard manual work of thousands of excavators, even 6-year-old children, who endured the terrible working conditions in exchange for meager pay. Luigi Pirandello he illustrated this reality in his novella Ciaula discovers the moon.
The working conditions of the miners subsequently improved with the evolution of extraction processes and with the use of mines. In that context, Agostino Pennisi, baron of Floristella, began to give an entrepreneurial face to the process of extracting and processing sulfur and had a valuable building erected, which still exists, which he used as a family home and as a place for research and experimentation.
The sulfur mines began to go into crisis starting from thirties, when they were given in gabelle, even if they experienced a revival due to the Second World War, and remained so until 1963. At the end of the 60s they were acquired by the Region, through theSicilian mining body. The last of the three vertical shafts was opened in the 70s.[2]
However, the mining activity definitively ceased production in 1986[3]
There followed a long period of abandonment of all structures up to the threshold of the the nineties. The area of the mining complex was also entirely crossed by the Dittaino-Piazza Armerina-Caltagirone railway that there were several stations; this was closed and quickly dismantled in the early 70s.
The birth of the Floristella – Grottacalda Mining Park Authority was stipulated by article 6 of the regional law n. 17 of 1991, which for its activities made use of personnel from the former Sicilian mining body and the Forestry Corps of the Sicilian Region. The Mining Park, which covers an area of 400 ha, merges the two abandoned sulfur mines of the same name, resulting in one of the most expressive settlements inindustrial archeology existing in the south of Italy.
In 1992 director Aurelius Grimaldi, shoot and set the film The descent of Aclà to Floristella in the mine.
The mines
Floristar
Permission to open the Floristella mine, in the Valguarnera area, was granted on 11 April 1825, although the extraction of sulfur took place even earlier, following the discovery, in 1791, of the Leblanc method of manufacturing soda obtained by treating with sulfuric acid the common salt. Sicilian sulfur, abundant on the surface and known since ancient times, was thus required in large quantities in international circuits.
The Floristella mine preserves the typical landscape. Semi-vertical tunnels and shafts are present and visible; from these the sulfur detached with pickaxes was transported to the calcarons located near the exits of wells and tunnels. The vision of the old equipment evokes the image of very hard work and the bitter reality of the exploitation of the work of the so-called carusi, adolescents and even 6-year-old children, who for a few handfuls of money were given by families to pickaxers and used by them to carry the sulfur ore to the surface on their shoulders.
Hot Cave
During its activity, the Grottacalda mine housed a large number of miners. The ruins of the blocks of flats and of the workshops and sheds necessary for the mining activity, still visible on the site, bear witness to this.
Of the underground part of the mine, many mouths of air shafts and inclined planes survive for the most primitive access routes and also with the most modern vertical lifts operated by electric or steam winches equipped with large wooden and metal structures.
The Roba Grande farmhouse, a real village with a courtyard in the center and a chapel, and the disused Grottacalda railway station of the Dittaino-Piazza Armerina line act as a corollary to the mining area.
Source : Wikipedia
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Photo: by Eugenio Interguglielmi (1850-1911). – Personal scan, Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7296438
Information contributions: Sicily Region
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