The Sulphur Mine‘s Museum, opened in 1992, is located in the heart of Carbernardi’s district, on the first floor of the former school building. .
Through an evocativeitinerary, the visitor is ideally brought back to the industrial reality of a long gone era between two centuries (from the last thirteen years of the 19th century until over half of the 20th century).
It was a reality with approximately 1600 miners, most of them doing a hard and dangerous work, employed by the ‘Montecatini’ company, owner of the mine from 1917 to 1959.
The museum shows the story of what, for a long period, was the most important sulphur mine area in Europe, whose operation represented the main point of the economy of that whole area.
Eighty years of industrial work are ‘narrated’ through numerous testimonies, included in the Museum, of the life in the mine.
Working tools, material for the mineral’s extraction, gas mask, safety helmet for the miners, pneumatic drill , lamps, blueprints and the mine’s scale model containing the two main wells describe significantly the miner’s job and the hardness of old-time work.
Items that illustrate the human and working aspects of the miners that, shrouded with exhaustion and sweat, had worn, used, oiled, consumed and maybe loved them.
In the Museum there is also the sulphur, raw material of the mine, which is displayed raw, just like when it was extracted, and also In the shape of crystals , of 50kg’s slabs and in the purest form after the working process.
Other than the sulphur, the exhibition displays many other subsoil minerals (pyrite, aragonite, copper, fluorite, quartz etc...) donated by Cabernardi’s miners that, after the cessation of the extractive activity of the sulphur, were moved by the Montecatini to other mining sites.
The room with the photographs and the cut-outs from old newspaper is very evocative. A new interpretation of more than a half century of history that witnesses not just the life in the mine, the activity related to it and the tragic moments before its closure, but also leisure times and festivities celebrated by the miners and their families.
OPENING HOURS
NOVEMBER - MARCH: Saturday 3 p.m.- 6 p.m. / Sunday and holidays 10 a.m.- 1p.m. and 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.
APRIL - OCTOBER: Saturday 4 p.m. - 7 p.m. / Sunday and holidays 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. - 7 p.m. In August open daily 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.
