Here, the ruins of metal headframes, tiered waste dumps, and Gill furnaces recount nearly a century and a half of the Sicilian sulphur epic. Opened in 1839, the mine quickly became the deepest and most productive in the district thanks to the purity of its Messinian seams and the rare “strawberry crystals,” red-orange concretions now highly prized by mineral collectors.
But Gessolungo is also a place of painful memory: at dawn on 12 November 1881, a firedamp explosion in the Piana gallery killed 65 miners, 19 of whom were carusi—children between eight and sixteen—remembered by the small “Cemetery of the Carusi,” which still moves visitors today. That tragedy inspired folk songs and the famous ballad La zolfara, which became an anthem of labor struggles. Mining continued with electric plants and modern hoists until 1986, when international competition and the energy crisis brought closure. Since then, prickly pears, broom, and caper plants have enveloped the industrial remains, transforming the site into a fascinating “archaeo-landscape” where nature and industrial archaeology intertwine.
Recognized by the Sicilian Region as a geosite of national mining interest, Gessolungo is included in the inventory of Sites of Geological Interest and in the network of Mining Parks and Museums, attesting to its dual scientific and historical value.