Perticara e Marazzana

In antiquity, since Roman times, the populations of the Perticara were collecting the mineral that naturally emerged along the course of the Fanante stream but, with the discovery of gunpowder, interest in the sulphurous rock increased. The presence of mills for the production of gunpowder in Novafeltria and Campiano di Talamello bears witness to this phenomenon. In the XVII century the first sporadic news of some mining activity appears and from the XVIII century numerous properties follow one another for the exploitation of the sulfur veins of Perticara and Marazzana: the Masi family, Count Giovanni Cisterni (who also built a sulfur refinery in Rimini), the Picard Company, the Anonymous Society of the Solfur Mines of Romagna and Trezza-Albani, led the mining activity, between technological development and recurring crises. The first large shafts are dug and the mine goes deeper and deeper. In 1850 for the smelting of sulfur the first “calcheroni” were built to replace more obsolete systems and from 1880 the first Gill furnaces went into operation.

In 1917 the Montecatini Company acquired the concession for the exploitation of the Perticara sulfur deposit at bankruptcy prices: thus the most important industry in the area was launched with thousands of men engaged in digging tens of kilometers of tunnels on nine levels of cultivation.

In 1938 the Perticara plant reached the peak of its mining activity with production of raw sulfur that came close to 50,000 tons and the employment of over 1600 employees. The productive rhythm of mining punctuates the life of thousands of men and women, the fatigue and uncertainty of survival give way on the surface to a cheerful and festive character: the musical bands, the philharmonic, the football teams, the theatres, the cinema, the Carnival society enliven the free time hours of a community of five thousand residents.

A slow decline began after the Second World War: the competition from foreign countries that produced sulfur with alternative methods and at more competitive prices, the slow depletion of the deposits, the technological overrun and the increasingly important interest of Montecatini for the chemical sector led to the dramatic closure of the Perticara mine in 1964.

In Perticara the presence of the large sulfur deposit gave rise to an early intense industrial activity in the context of a vast and poor mountain and hilly area with a prevalently agricultural vocation, generating a society organized on the rhythms of work, with services typical of industrial areas of quite different dimensions. It is a microcosm inextricably linked to the productivity of the mine and to the economic policy choices of the Italian industry. That industry that in Perticara turned off its lights just when the economic boom was taking place in the rest of the country.

The Perticara mine after closure

The fascination of history and of the subsoil, the desire to rediscover the heritage and to rediscover the lost site of the mine hidden under the village of Perticara led, in the 1980s, to the reopening of the Fanante tunnel. This has made it possible to organize speleological investigations aimed at monitoring the subsoil in order to know the state of stability of the mine, also with a view to its exploitation for tourist and scientific purposes. The danger due to the widespread collapses and the lack of ventilation which causes low levels of oxygen and considerable quantities of toxic gases, has limited the investigations to a few meters of tunnel: the reopening of the mine still remains a distant wish, but the search for new means for the safety of the subsoil continues.

The establishment of the National Sulfur Museum Park of Marche and Romagna in 2005 by the Ministry of the Environment gives new impetus, also through funding, for the restoration and cultural and tourist enhancement of the mine, in close synergy with the local populations and associations and the municipal administration.