MINES OF SULCIS & PAN DI ZUCCHERO

 

The coal mine of Serbariu is situated in the west outskirts of Carbonia (Cagliari), between the town and the National Road n° 126. The mine was closed in 1970s. After a long time of neglect, it has been transformed into a very interesting museum.

Alberto La Marmora was the first who wrote about the coal of Sulcis. In his “Voyage en Sardaigne” (1875). The Museum includes the “lampisteria” (the building that housed the lamps of the miners, showers, bathrooms, etc.), a tunnel and the winding engine room. The “lampisteria” houses a permanent exposition on the history of coal, the mine and Carbonia; furthermore, the wide building houses a precious collection of mining lamps, tools, instruments, objects of daily use, photographs, documents, period videos and interviews of the miners.

The visit to the tunnel explains the evolution of coal mining techniques used in the Serbariu mine from the Tirthies to the end of the activity.

The winding engine room conserves the great wheels of the engine that allowed the operator to control the descent and rise of the cages along the mine shaft. Lastly, the Museum includes bookshop, cafeteria and conference hall.

Porto Flavia is an abandoned mine site since recent decades.

Minerals came from Masua, long galleries allowed to carry in the rocky walls and ended directly in the holds of merchant ships moored under the rock wall. Porto Flavia was used for the shipping of minerals.

Mining ceased permanently in 1991, however, the installation will remain active until the end of 1997.

Porto Flavia is an ingenious structure that has revolutionized the system of boarding minerals. A receiving conveyor receiving minerals from underground deposits to transfer, with its ingenious movable arm, directly into the hold of the transport ships at anchor, on buoys by 9 m deep.

You can anchor in 9 m, close to the loading facility or moor to the numerous mooring buoys in the vicinity. it is sheltered from N wind.

The maritime village of Buggerru is the principal port between Oristano and Sant’Antioco and with its long and open beach of Portixeddu Is a little eldorado for surfers from everywhere. Near to this village it can be visited the Henry’s Gallery, a long mining tunnel overstanding

the sea that is a jewel really unknow to the majority of travellers. The coast southwards from Buggerru is really panoramic and full of little paradise coins like the beach of Cala Domestica, dominated by a spanish tower, the mining village of Nebida, suspended between the sea and the mountains beyond.

Masua is an abandoned mining site on the sea with a beautiful beach where is possible to have a natural source shower after a swim in the crystal waters of Sardinian sea. Near Masua there is Porto Flavia, the most symbolic mining place where the big vessels loaded minerals from Sulcis using a direct exit on the sea from the white cliff standing in front of the Pan di Zucchero islet.